As It Is Now
by silver-eyed
Summary: As Hokage, his duties come before everything, with the exception of a certain Uchiha. Yet one decision he makes goes against the promise he made; causing Sasuke to rethink his own decision to come back after all. narusasu
1. Chapter 1

As It Is Now

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Prologue

Having failed to bring Sasuke back from Orochimaru, Naruto continued to seek out the snake while fending off Akatsuki. Briefly after his short encounter with Sasuke, news came that Orochimaru had been killed, while Kabuto and Sasuke were missing.

Months went by after that as Naruto still tried to look for any sign of Sasuke. He would have continued had Tsunade not thrown her foot down by ordering him that enough was enough.

"Sasuke is dead!" the statement quieted everyone in the room. Tsunade glared at the blond in front of her. His face lost all traces of color, his eyes widened in disbelief and denial. He started to shake his head; his mouth moved to deny her words.

"His body was found by oinins three days ago. The report reached me last night," she let out a sigh and finally sat back down on her chair; the one that she had vacated when the argument had begun, "His body's been disposed of."

The occupants of the room stared at her; her words slowly sank into everyone that Sasuke was dead.

When the report had first come in that Itachi's body had been found, most had assumed that the last Uchiha had finally fulfilled his life mission and killed the one man he hated the most. They wondered where the ex-leaf nin had gone to after that. Now though, with the discovery of Sasuke's body, it seemed that the question was answered.

"Where was he found?"

All eyes turned to the one who had spoken. As his first sensei, Kakashi had every right to ask that question. The jounin's eyes remained passive but those who knew him knew that Sasuke had weighed heavily on his mind ever since the battle at the Valley of the End.

"Wave Country, an hour away from the southern border," was the Hokage's reply. Then slowly, other questions were raised. However, one blond remained silent throughout the entire ordeal.

He stared at nothing. His face showed nothing to the ones in the room, but even that was enough for them to realize that he was not okay. The hyperactive blond was always saying something, be it wise or stupid; his mouth was always moving. But not now, he merely stood there. When the occupants of the room were dismissed, he still stood there.

"Naruto," Tsunade began quietly, unsure of how to handle the boy in this state. She glanced at the masked man standing by the door. Kakashi returned the glance but did nothing more. Before she could say anything, Naruto spoke.

"I was supposed to bring him back, for Sakura, for everyone. Me, I promised," he whispered as he looked towards the window before his gaze centered on the Hokage, "He was my best friend…how…I, I…" and he broke.

For the first time since anyone could remember, the always cheerful and hyperactive ninja openly sobbed. Tsunade rushed to him and cradled him in her arms like a mother would her crying child. Her heart went out to him as he sobbed incoherently, his words jumbled and his sentences half-formed.

Kakashi could do nothing but stare as his student sobbed his heart out.


	2. Chapter 2

As It Is Now

Chapter 1

I own nothing…at least not Naruto as that belongs to Kishimoto

"Here is the report, Hokage-sama," the ANBU bowed briefly before straightening up.

"Thank you, anything else?" azure blue eyes probed the ANBU as the latter shook their head, "Dismissed." The ANBU nodded and left the office. Those eyes stared at the figure until it vanished in a swirl of leaves before he leaned back in his chair with a quiet sigh.

Finally leaning forward again, the report was picked up and blue eyes quickly scanned the precise wordings for anything. When nothing stood out the report was shoved away accompanied by a frustrated growl.

"Still looking?" blue eyes shot to the door where the infamous Copy Ninja stood, still the same except he looked older. Despite the mask, Kakashi's age was starting to show around his one visible eye.

The jounin stared at his former pupil, seeing the frustration that he didn't bother to hide. It had been almost five years since Tsunade and he had stood in this room when that boy had cried his heart out. Now that boy sat where Tsunade had sat because he had finally received the recognition that he had worked so hard for.

But Kakashi knew that Naruto had never gotten over that day.

Naruto had been so bothered by it that when he had been selected by Tsunade to become the Sixth Hokage, he had outright refused to become the Hokage until he could find Sasuke. Despite deliberating statements and angry words, he wouldn't budge on his decision until Tsunade finally quietly whispered in his ear. Only then did he allow himself to accept the duty and honor of becoming the next Hokage.

Now, as Kakashi continued his perusal of the blond, he still saw the determination that made Naruto who he was; his way of the ninja.

Blue eyes looked away from his former sensei. He didn't have to answer that, Kakashi already knew that he had never stopped looking. He never hid it from Kakashi like he did from everyone else. Naruto could barely stand to be in Sakura's presence. Every time he saw her, he was reminded of broken promises and pain.

For the last five years of searching, he had promised himself that this would be the last search and he had been expecting so much more, at least a little something to give him a reason to continue. And there had been nothing; no leads at all.

No signs of Sasuke.

He never believed that the bastard was dead. He couldn't believe that.

He looked up at Kakashi, noting that the man hadn't really changed all that much ever since he had first seen him despite looking older. Nothing really changed he thought; it was like Sasuke had never been part of team seven, like the Uchiha Clan had never been a part of Konoha.

Was he the only one that cared whether Sasuke was found or not?

Before he could continue his depressing chain of thought, as he was wont to do lately, Kakashi stepped up to his desk and placed a document in front of him.

"What is this?" Naruto asked the jounin. When he didn't answer, Naruto picked up the document and began reading. A few moments of scanning went by before his eyes widened and he gripped the documents with both hands. He frantically searched for a date on the paper but could find none. His eyes darted up to Kakashi, "When was this?" he demanded.

"Two weeks ago in Wave Country," was all the jounin said. Wave Country was where his body had been found supposedly. There hadn't been such a gruesome battle between the two Uchihas, least of all in Wave Country.

This information was passed onto him from Tsunade. She had received the report and had told no one except Naruto and Kakashi. It was this information that had given him hope.

Now he found out that the ANBU that Kakashi had sent out on a mission in Wave Country recently had spotted Sasuke. He had been located in a tiny village living with the locals.

After all these years, for him to be found in that small village-living there and farming-it was a lot for Naruto to take in.

"How much time-" he was cut off by Kakashi.

"You're not going anywhere. I have selected someone to track him."

"What?! Who?" he demanded from the jounin. Naruto glared at his former sensei but the look bounced right off the older man as he leaned onto the desk.

"I already sent him. He should've arrived at the village yesterday. I instructed him to send daily reports which I will relay to you," Kakashi stated calmly knowing that Naruto would have none of it.

"Relay to me? What else did you tell him to do? Am I not the Hokage?" Naruto yelled out as he stood up and slammed his hands on the old desk. He opened his mouth to continue his rant but Kakashi held up his hand for silence. And damn it all, it still worked too after all these years. Naruto closed his mouth and waited for him to speak, barely restraining his fury.

"He is under my jurisdiction, he answers only to me. And he's not exactly social so I doubt you would want to meet him," Kakashi finished lamely.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and growled out, "I want to know if I can trust him to find Sasuke! I don't want to have a chat with him."

"You can trust him, I think."

"You think?! What the hell Kakashi! Where is he? Where is this village?"

"I can't tell you that, and as for the tracker… I can't tell you that either, it's classified."

"Bullshit," he snapped, but he didn't say anything else for a moment as all the implications flooded his head. There was actual hope that Sasuke could be found. Everyone else thought he was dead. Well, he'd show them. He'd bring Sasuke home if it took him the rest of his life. Lost in thought, he didn't realize that Kakashi was talking to him until he looked up and noticed the man staring at him expectantly.

"What? Did you say something?"

"I said that I'll get back to you tomorrow on any progress. As for now, you should get back to that mountain of trees on your desk before your advisor comes back and sees that you haven't been working. Until tomorrow then!" and with that he disappeared with an upward curved eye and a swirl of leaves.

"Damn you, Kakashi," Naruto growled under his breath. They had said that he deserved to be Hokage, yet they still treated him like a kid, not letting him do much and always keeping him inside this damn tower. Which was why whenever he had the chance, he would send off a clone to do some hunting.

And that was exactly what he was going to do. Of course, he wasn't a complete idiot, at least not anymore; he knew that Kakashi had already guessed what he was going to do. But the jounin had never really stopped him.

With something to look forward to, Naruto went to work quickly, eager to get through everything so he could get some private time to do some hunting on his own; to make sure that the so called tracker would look for Sasuke.


	3. Chapter 3

As It Is Now

Chapter 2

I own nothing… at least not Naruto as that belongs to Kishimoto

He'd been staring at the same area for the past hour. His back was aching, his legs were numb, he was starving, but he was still waiting.

Simply waiting.

He had been waiting for so long now. Five years, five years!! No one deserved to wait for that long, and five years was long especially for a shinobi. He hadn't seen Sasuke yet but he had found the village, now he was merely biding his time, wondering how he was going to do this.

Just as he was about to make a move he saw movement. There was the slightest shift in the leaves as they swayed from more than the slight wind. His eyes shot over to his right where a cloaked figure stood when before it had been empty.

"You're not supposed to be here," the cloaked figure said in a low voice. Surprised that he hadn't even noticed the stranger, Naruto tensed up for an attack. He studied the figure who was wearing a non-descript tan colored cloak with a heavy hood. Over his face he donned a white animal mask with several blue slashes across the left side.

"Who are you?" Naruto questioned.

"You should not here," the stranger repeated.

"Who do you work for?" he tried a different approach after getting no more than that.

"I answer to no one." That bold statement made Naruto remember Kakashi's cryptic remarks about his tracker. Judging from the mask and the cloak, this man was most likely an ANBU or oinin.

"You're the tracker?" he asked finally but when the masked man still said nothing, he pressed on, "What do you have to report?"

"I have nothing to report to you," was all the response that he gave to the annoyed blond.

"Hey!" Naruto took a breath to say something else but the other man spoke first.

"Stay out of the way. You should not be here."

Naruto fumed. He was pissed. Who the hell was this stranger to tell him what to do?

"I'll do whatever the hell I want! You stay out of my way!" he yelled out and immediately shut his mouth. Damn it! He might as well tell Sasuke and the whole world that he was here with all the noise he was making.

And it was that damned tracker's fault! He growled to the tracker, "You stay out of my way," and Naruto jumped out of the tree that he was in and headed towards the small river that the village was built by.

By the time he reached the river, he had cooled down a little bit. Still a little mad though, he knelt by the water and splashed water on his face, muttering the whole while about stupid trackers and former teachers.

Finished with the water, he sat down on his hunches and started to think. If he was lucky, he'd have a couple more days before his advisor and Kakashi realized that he hadn't sent a clone like he had done in the past but instead had left a clone in his stead. He knew it was irresponsible, especially now that he was Hokage, but he hadn't made any promises about not going to look for Sasuke if there was a chance to find him.

So here he was.

But there was no time for celebrations yet. He had to get that stubborn bastard home first. Considering that he had been alive all these years in hiding, he might not be too eager to go home. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it; right now he was going to reveal himself, if Sasuke hadn't already known that he was here.


	4. Chapter 4

As It Is Now

Chapter 3

I don't own Naruto.

The village was really small; probably not even a village, but a little too big for a hamlet. A cross between a hamlet and a village then, Naruto decided as he walked past the first house. Standing next to the second house was an old man talking to a very animated little boy. When Naruto was within hearing distance of them, the old man ushered the boy to go and play before he turned his attention to the blond.

"Good day stranger. What brings you to our little place here?" The old man's eyes were clear and full of wisdom as they perused him. There wasn't any apparent suspicion in them yet.

"Good day to you too, sir. I was just passing through. Is there a place to stay for the night? If not, at least somewhere where I can get some fresh food?" Naruto asked politely. The old man seemed to weigh his words for a moment before he spoke.

"If you're looking for an inn, we don't have any of those here. As for food though, I'm sure that Natsumi would be willing to get you some food," he paused, then he continued with an inquiring look in his eyes, "Are you looking for anything else?"

Not surprised by his question but playing along nonetheless to find out how much the old man knew Naruto asked, "Now what makes you ask that?"

The old man shrugged slightly, "We're a small village, but it seems that in the past few years we've had many strangers pass through here looking for something."

"You mean someone," Naruto's eyes narrowed. No doubt the old man was referring to the oinins or bounty hunters that had come for Sasuke. And from the man's attitude, he wouldn't budge for much so Naruto decided to play his hand right away.

"Yeah, you can say that I'm looking for someone. I've been looking for him for a long time now. He's really pale, doesn't talk much, and has short black hair. The last that I heard of him is that he came this way. Have you seen him?"

"Who is he to you that you would chase him for this long?" the old man asked.

"He's my best friend," Naruto said solemnly as he stared right into the old man's inquiring gaze.

After a brief moment the old man looked away and said, "There are many travelers who wear cloaks and hoods. I may or may not have seen him. But if you do want food, Natsumi's house is down that way. I'll have Shinto show you the way." He gestured to the boy he had ushered away before. The boy came running over to the pair, curiosity brimming in his every movement.

"Shinto, please show this man to Natsumi for some food."

"Yes, Tozou-domo," he replied respectfully before he innocently grabbed Naruto's hand in his excitement, "Come on, her house is this way!"

The blond followed the eager boy down a dirt path away from the general cluster of homes. As soon as they were out of sight and hearing of the old man, the boy dropped Naruto's hand and turned to him, asking, "So, you're a traveler eh? What's your name? Where are you from? Are you looking for someone? Cuz I heard you ask Tozou that you were looking for someone."

The blond glanced down at the boy in amusement; he sure was a curious one. Deciding to indulge the kid a bit, not to mention that most children tended to give out information freely, he chuckled and started to talk.

"I'm a traveler yes. My name is Naruto and I'm from Konoha. I am looking for someone."

"Naruto? That's a weird name! My name is Shinto and my mamma told me that it's a very fine name for a man!" the kid puffed out his small chest in pride and Naruto couldn't help but smile and agree that it was.

"Eh, who are you looking for anyway? Is it a criminal?" the boy continued, "Because there are no criminals here." He had on a frown as he stopped and placed his fists on his hips to emphasize his point.

"No, I'm looking for my best friend," Naruto said quietly. At his quiet tone, Shinto's eyes filled with sorrow.

"Oh, did you lose him? Are you sad? Because if I lost my best friend I would be sad too. He's really cool, he gives me piggyback rides and he's real strong. I bet he's even stronger than you!" the boy went on in his excitement about his best friend.

Naruto asked, "Really, who is your best friend?"

"Oh, his name is Uzumaki! It's easier to just call him Maki though. He's about as old as you I think. But he's real cool, not like Toshi's dad; he's a pig and he's mean. Although Maki did make him shut up once and we all laughed…"

The boy went on with other situations but Naruto had ceased to notice. As soon as he heard the name, he knew that had to be Sasuke. So he was involved with the village? He was someone else's best friend? These implications raced through his head as they continued walking.

"Naruto? We're here!" Shinto called up to him. Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked at the house that they had stopped in front of.

It was small and humble but the surrounding grounds were clean and weed free. The house was well taken care of and there even appeared to be a garden on the side that wrapped around the house into the back. From what he could see, there were a lot of tomato plants and herbs. Some tomatoes looked ripe enough to pick but maybe there hadn't been any time to pick them yet.

Shinto ran up to the door and knocked a couple of times before he opened the door and stepped inside, yelling, "Natsumi! Naruto is here for some food!"

Scuffling could be heard coming from within the house as a middle aged woman poked her head out to frown at Shinto.

"Shinto, what did I tell you about yelling like that?" she scolded the boy as she stepped out of the doorway; her eyes slid to the blond and she raised her brow and took in his appearance. Her eyes were guarded even as Shinto muttered an apology then grabbed her hand and excitedly told her about the man he had just met and how he was looking for his best friend.

"Is that so?" she simply said, "Well, you wanted some food right? Come back in a little while and I'll have some for you." She returned back into the house without waiting for an answer. The subdued reaction had Naruto thinking that she was very similar to the old man earlier. They knew he was here for Sasuke but they were rather passive with their distrust.

"Naruto! Do you want to meet Maki? He's really cool and I think that he needs a best friend. I know that I said that he's my best friend, but, well, sometimes I think that he needs a best friend too." At Naruto's surprised stare, the boy continued, "Come on, I'll show you to him. You'll see what I mean when you see him." He once again grabbed the blonde's hand and pulled him off in another direction.

Moments later they arrived at another house. It appeared less used; less lived in, but it was still in good condition despite the occasional weed here and there. It was a change from the large, empty compound that the raven haired man had grown up in and Naruto couldn't help but think that he must have preferred this to the ghost town that he went home to every night back when they were younger.

Shinto's loud greetings weren't returned this time and the boy darted down another path, this time not taking Naruto's hand but merely shouting over his shoulder for him to follow; that he would lead him to his best friend.

Naruto followed the boy, but not too closely though. The closer that he got to Sasuke, the more apprehension and dread he felt. Soon he began to slow down so that Shinto ran further ahead every second. Butterflies fluttered frantically inside him and part of his mind screamed at him to turn around.

He was so nervous.

Suddenly confronting Sasuke didn't sound like such a good idea after all. From his hearing, he could tell that Shinto had stopped but he had been so lost in thought that the chance to run slipped away when he pulled up a few meters short of the boy.

Before him stood the man he had been looking for all these years. Dressed simply in plain colors, he stood with quiet grace and dark eyes. He held a hoe in his right hand and in his left he held a straw hat that he must have taken off when Shinto called out to him.

"Hey, Maki! This is Naruto; he's looking for his best friend. He's passing through the village and I remembered that I wanted you to have a best friend too so I want you to meet Naruto!" Shinto explained enthusiastically. At his cheerful smile, Naruto nodded in Sasuke's direction in lieu of greeting which the pale man did not return.

"Natsumi is making him some food. She told us to come back later when she had it done," he paused for breath but before he could add anything else, Sasuke spoke.

"Shinto, why don't you go back to Natsumi and get Naruto his food."

"Ah, sure," he said hesitantly as he watched the two adults with sudden unusually knowing eyes. It seemed like Maki telling him to leave so suddenly had happened many times before. The boy stood there for another moment as he looked back and forth between the two men then he turned around and supposedly went to get Naruto's food.

The two men stood there for the longest time, merely looking at each other. It wasn't until Naruto broke eye contact to look around the field that Sasuke had been working on that the silence was broken.

"So…You've been here all this time?" he half asked, half stated as he lifted blue eyes to meet dark, unreadable ones.

"Hn," was all the response that he received from the pale man. Naruto frowned at that and for the first time since they stood face to face, emotions showed through.

"Why?" Blue eyes searched onyx ones for an answer to the question that had plagued him ever since Kakashi had told him about the village. Anger and confusion were some of the many emotions rising up inside of him as he continued to stare into those dark eyes.

"What does it matter?" Disbelief flooded the blonde's face at his rival's nonchalant words.

"What? What do you mean 'what does it matter'? I've been looking for you all this time and you've been _here_ the whole time, bastard?!" Naruto's voice grew louder with every word that came out of his mouth.

"You're not my keeper," Sasuke said with infuriating calm. Before Naruto could retort to that Sasuke continued, "Didn't I tell you to forget about me? You've accomplished your dream of being Hokage, what more do you want?"

_What more do you want?_

That line; it had been said so many times to him by so many others when he kept looking for Sasuke. To have Sasuke say that as well made him snap a little inside.

"What do I want?! What the hell do you think? You think I like chasing you around for nothing? I want you back!"

Silence followed his outburst; his chest heaved from pent up emotions, his fists clenched tightly. And still, no response from the one that mattered.

"Well?" Naruto prompted. Sasuke raised a brow at which Naruto sighed dramatically, his anger gone for the moment, "Are you coming back with me or not?"

The brow lowered and one word came out of his mouth, "No." The pale man said no more as Naruto stared at him as he contemplated what he was going to do.

"Hn, bastard," Naruto muttered, not really expecting anything else but he glared at him anyway and turned around abruptly and stomped off, muttering all the while, when all he really wanted to do was smash his fist into that bastard's calm face.

He really was getting old, turning away instead of fighting. Maybe he had grown up after all, he thought to himself as he headed back down the path he had come on.


	5. Chapter 5

As It Is Now

Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry, I feel bad about this being so short but that's where it wanted to cut itself as a chapter.

Naruto turned back inside the doorway after sending his clone off. He was waiting for Kakashi to storm the village any day now looking for him.

Closing the door behind him, he looked around the small house and walked over to the simple cot and dumped his pack by it. Then he started looking for food.

Sasuke came home to the smell of food and evidence of another being in his house, aka the pack by his bed. He put his tools away and went over to the kitchen. The kitchen wasn't much; it was merely another area of the one room house that had a stove and a small table. He looked at the food that had been made; from the looks of it, Naruto had eaten and left some for him.

Instead of eating, he went out to the back of building where he saw the blond sitting underneath his favorite tree.

"Hey, bastard." Naruto opened his eyes as he spoke when Sasuke stopped in front of him. He gave the raven haired man a once over prior to closing his eyes and patting the ground next to him.

Complying, Sasuke sat down next to him and silence once again ensued. Yet it wasn't stifling; it reminded Naruto of the times when they would take a break after training and he would sit next to Sasuke without getting insulted.

"You shouldn't be here."

So much for that. Naruto held up his hand without opening his eyes and ordered, "Don't talk." He lowered his hand and continued, "You know, everyone tells me that. I'm the Hokage but my actions are directed by the council elders and Kakashi has appointed himself my unofficial advisor, not to mention I have another advisor who's still trying to train me.

"I'm surprised he isn't here yet telling me what to do and not to do. I may have the title of Hokage but that doesn't mean much at the moment. Everyone treats me like a little kid. I know right from wrong. I know what I'm doing. Yet no one gives me the chance to prove myself that I can make my own decisions." Sasuke made no comment to that.

Naruto continued anyway, "And I know it doesn't help that I came here. Really irresponsible but…it's my choice to make, and I made it." He opened his eyes and looked at Sasuke who had been staring at him for a while now. All of a sudden the deep and serious Naruto was gone, replaced by an impossibly huge grin.

"Sasuke, come on, I bet you're hungry and I know you didn't eat." The blond stood up and held out a hand to Sasuke. The pale man looked at the offered hand and brushed it aside; standing up gracefully on his own.

"Fine, be that way then," Naruto decided, but the way he dropped it told Sasuke that he hadn't expected anything else.


	6. Chapter 6

As It Is Now

Chapter 5

I own nothing, especially Naruto.

Naruto stayed there for a week before there were any signs of Konoha ninja. The first signs were merely chakra signatures that kept a certain distance from the village but they were noticed nonetheless by the two men. It wasn't until the next day that Kakashi himself strolled into the village looking like a traveler. He paused by Shinto and gave him some candy while he chatted with the old man.

Naruto stood at the end of the path keeping a neutral expression but his mind churned with this information. The familiarity that the old man showed to the jounin told Naruto that this wasn't Kakashi's first visit. The henge that he wore like a cloak was a simple one; made for the easily deceived or civilians like Shinto.

When he was done greeting Tozou, the white haired man turned a curious eye to Naruto. His one eye crinkled in cheerfulness as he looked at the unmoving blond.

"There you are. You've worried everyone, Naruto," the jounin said. At this statement, the old man looked at Kakashi and asked, "You know him?"

"Yes, he's the reason why I'm here actually. I've come to take him home." Naruto did not visibly react to this news. He had been expecting this, albeit sooner. Shinto on the other hand jumped in front of Kakashi, his hands spread out protectively.

"You can't take Naruto away! He didn't do anything wrong! He's a good person, he's not a criminal!" Shinto cried out, "You said you only take away the bad people! Why are you taking away Naruto?"

Said blond widened his eyes in slight surprise; not only did they know Kakashi, but it seemed Kakashi had been protecting Sasuke as well. He furrowed his brows at his former sensei in question. The man only continued to smile with his one visible eye as he bent down to Shinto's level and took the boy into a hug.

"Now, now, Shinto. Calm down, Naruto is not a bad person. But I have to take him back home. There are people who miss him and are looking for him," he reassured the boy. Slightly mollified, the boy nodded wisely like he had done that first day that he had met Naruto.

At his last sentence, Kakashi looked at Naruto. Like his usual way, Naruto did not hesitate to make a decision.

"I'm not going. Not yet," he stated calmly as he matched Kakashi's even stare. Naruto kept up the stare for a few more silent moments before he looked away and motioned with his hands, "Do you want to eat? I've got something cooking." The way his eyes looked at his former sensei made the white haired man nod before he gave a short farewell to Tozou and Shinto.

They both kept silent as they walked toward Sasuke's current home. It wasn't until they were inside that Naruto spoke up.

"I'm not leaving yet," he said as he poured a cup tea and gave it to Kakashi who took it and sipped it. Kakashi raised a brow and continued to sip at his tea while Naruto busied himself around the stove stirring his food. Naruto didn't need to see the brow to know that Kakashi wanted a reason.

"I…I just need to see something for myself, that's all," he said a bit thickly; he knew that Kakashi would not say anything about his tone. And with that, he turned and started pacing in the kitchen.

Kakashi's eyes followed Naruto as his thoughts about the little things that had happened during his stay here flooded his mind. He recalled the moments when Sasuke and he had stayed up late to simply gaze up at the stars. And he saw the times when Shinto would jump onto the raven haired man 

or onto himself and demand a ride. Other times would quickly replace the current memories but the most distinctive one that kept coming back to him was when he saw his rival smile.

It wasn't anything grand or spectacular-physically. But rarely did the other ever smile genuinely and so such a smile in itself was worth noting and remembering.

Unable to stay inside anymore, Naruto went to the door and left the house. He approached the tree that Sasuke and he always managed to end up under after the day was done. Here was where Sasuke's smile had peered out one night. For the life of him, Naruto couldn't remember what the other had smiled about but it didn't really matter, just that he had smiled.

He looked at the bark of the tree, rough, much like himself and he remembered the feelings that he had that night. He had been filled with a myriad of feelings that night, but he saw the way the villagers treated Sasuke here, and he saw the way Sasuke acted around them.

It hurt a lot but once Kakashi reached the tree where he stood, he turned around and faced his former teacher. He was no longer a kid and coming here had been irresponsible.

It was time to be an adult and take responsibility for his actions.

Without saying a word to Kakashi, he walked past the jounin and headed back into the house. Moments later he came out again with his pack slung over his shoulder. Kakashi still stood by the tree where he had been left. They made eye contact for a brief moment before Naruto started walking towards the rest of the village.

He had to at least say good bye to Shinto.


	7. Chapter 7

As It Is Now

Chapter 6

I don't own Naruto or anything else really.

"You knew," Naruto accused to the man who stood quietly before him, "All along you knew and you never told me."

"I had my reasons," was Kakashi's even reply as he stood without remorse before his Hokage. Naruto narrowed his eyes and took in a deep breath…and he let it out in a long, tired sigh. Kakashi showed no visible reaction to this as Naruto sat down and turned his gaze to the window overlooking Konoha.

"I know your reasons," he started, his gaze still out the window, now lacking any sign of anger but showing sadness instead, "And I appreciate them…at the moment. I wouldn't have appreciated them in the past but you knew that; which is why you never told me." It had been a few days since they had returned from Wave and now had been the only time that Naruto had to confront Kakashi on the issue.

"It was also his wish." Naruto looked at Kakashi when he said that. Kakashi said no more and Naruto did not press him. He wondered again why Sasuke did that; he hadn't answered the last time he was asked either and that had been over a week ago.

Since getting back, he had been buried by paperwork. His clone had barely been able to keep up with everything and Kakashi had handled quite a few things as well. Why the jounin had helped out so much puzzled Naruto. Maybe it was a way to atone for keeping his knowledge secret for so long. Either way, Naruto was grateful that his decision hadn't ended in a disaster. Unless he counted the moment where he hadn't been able to slip by his advisor and had gotten caught sneaking into his office. Man, he had never been lectured like that in his life!

"I have to get this over and done with before the other jounin give me their recommendations for their teams," he changed the subject, dismissing the man who then nodded and disappeared with a puff of smoke. Naruto looked down at the files of the genin teams that were to be competing this year. There was some potential in a few of the teams, others would have to wait another year; Naruto wondered if he should let them compete or not- it depended on how their teachers presented them to him in the next couple of days.

Not to mention another batch of academy graduates were expected to become genin pretty soon as well. He would need to consult with a few jounin to see who would take them as their team. Ino had expressed interest in getting a team so he would have to see her sometime soon if his schedule permitted or else he could just send her a message.

He sighed, but then slowly smiled. This was his dream and although it wasn't as exciting as he had imagined it would be when he was a kid, he still wouldn't trade it for anything else.

With a smile still on his face, he looked out the window again and his gaze scanned the roofs of the buildings in view. The Hokage Mountain was not in view but inside his mind he could see all the faces of the previous Hokages and next to those five majestic faces was his; right alongside the portrayal of Tsunade. His hair was a bit longer now and it showed when they created the monument. Thinking about it now, he had always seen how closely he resembled the Fourth, but he had paid it no more attention to it other than the fact that it was another reason to work hard. He had come a long way and his father had been one of his major inspirations.

The other main inspiration was probably out in the field at this time. It was a bit late in the afternoon so maybe he was sitting under that tree, eating and thinking. Naruto could see him shirtless in 

his only trousers with his hair spiking up against the tree where he was leaning on it. His dark eyes would either be hooded and unreadable or closed and at peace.

Naruto's train of thought had him sighing and mentally chiding himself. Even though he had made the decision to leave Sasuke to his peaceful life, after all the raven haired man deserved it due to all that he had gone through, he could not help but think about him. Every little thought about random things would somehow lead him straight back to the man.

Sitting here now, he could only slightly begin to admit to a part of himself that maybe his feelings for his best friend were a bit more than friendly. It had never occurred to him until he had thought back to the evenings when they had laid beneath that tree when the sunlight had accentuated Sasuke's profile, how beautiful the onyx eyed man was.

He noticed that he had been looking a bit too long, had been staring too intently at the way Sasuke moved. And now, he couldn't help but wonder if Sasuke had noticed his extra attention, after all, he himself hadn't even been aware of what he had been doing until hindsight had crept up on him in the past few days.

If he saw Sasuke again, he wondered if he would tell him that. And he imagined the stoic man just looking at him and telling him that he was an idiot.

That wouldn't go well at all.

So perhaps he would just keep it to himself. No doubt he would see Sasuke again, maybe not anytime soon but he knew; when he grew restless, he would stop by that tree again to see if that raven haired man was waiting for him.

But that was for another day. Naruto sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that day and glanced down at the document in front of him. It was weekly report on the patrolling ninja and the people who went in and out of Konoha. He scanned the report quickly but made sure to not miss anything that would bring him grief later. His mind drifted back to Sasuke briefly; wondering if Sasuke had ever come back to Konoha at all in the past after he killed Orochimaru or Itachi even.

Shaking his head, he continued scanning the report and pushed Sasuke out of his thoughts. The remaining daylight left and darkness came but still Naruto went through the rest of the more urgent reports. He didn't know what time it was when the door to his office opened and a head of long pink hair poked in.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, "What are you still doing here?" She opened the door all the way and stepped into the office. Naruto gave her a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head, "Well, you know, I have to get all this done or else I'll never go outside again. And the chuunin exam is coming up; there are a lot of potential teams that I have to review. Then there's all the reports about treaties and-"

"Naruto. You need to get out of here and go home and rest. What will you have us do when you collapse from lack of sleep and food?" Sakura pointed out. When Naruto just shrugged and opened his mouth to try to explain some more, she marched over to him and grabbed his hand and yanked him out of his chair.

"Wha-" The look she gave him made him shut his mouth immediately, Sakura had always been scary when she was mad or being stubborn about something. She pulled him to the door and out of the office and towards the stairs. All the while, Naruto had forgotten the look she had given him and was protesting loudly. Two ANBU appeared at the bottom of the stairs and looked at Naruto questioningly.

"Eh? Oh, there's no problem here. I was just making sure that the Hokage went _home_ and got some _sleep_." Sakura explained in an extra sweet voice accompanied by scary eyes. When they looked at the now silent Naruto for confirmation, he quickly nodded and agreed that Sakura was merely helping him to the door.

"Good night!" he told them cheerfully before Sakura pulled him away. Towards the main doors, she hissed in his ear that it was almost dawn.

"Oh, well, in that case I'll just-eep!!" Sakura switched her hold from his hand to his collar and said, "You'll just go right to bed. Wasn't that what you were going to say?"

"Y-Yeah, that's right, I'm going to bed!" he gave in and Sakura finally let him go. He sighed and looked up at the moon shining in the dark sky. Sakura followed his gaze and said, "It's beautiful."

Naruto nodded, he agreed full-heartedly. He then turned to her and said good night as he started walking towards his apartment. Sakura followed him home to make sure he didn't take any detours along the way.

As the two disappeared down the road, Naruto looked away from the moon and headed to the top of the Hokage Monument. He hated to trick Sakura like that but he couldn't sleep. He hadn't been able to sleep recently and had actually been taking naps in the office, much like how Tsunade use to do.

Standing on top of the mountain, he looked out over the village; his home. And yet the pale moon illuminated him and the village, reminding him of another pale figure who constantly haunted his thoughts and now his dreams.


	8. Chapter 8

As It Is Now

Chapter 7

I don't own Naruto. There, I said it.

"Hokage-sama! What are you doing here?"

"I've come to see your final evaluation," Naruto replied cheerfully to the shocked academy students now gaping at him. He had caught up enough to please his advisor so that he could spare some time and walk around the village and have time to see the newest generation of leaf shinobi. Looking at the students, he remembered when the Third came through and did the same thing that he was doing now. It felt like just yesterday when he had knocked the Third out with his Sexy no jutsu. He wondered now why he could henge into a woman but couldn't even create a clone of himself. Eh, it didn't matter now, he had passed after all.

With his memories fresh in his mind, his smiled widened. The children stood up and lined themselves up for the test. Iruka stood at the front of the room like he always did with his clipboard and he smiled, motioning for the first to begin.

Speaking of Iruka, Naruto studied him for a moment. His teacher hadn't changed much at all, much like Kakashi. What was it about being middle-aged that froze your looks until you reach old age and then you're completely different, Naruto wondered.

Shaking himself mentally, he came back to the present from his thoughts and continued his watch over the rest of the students. Before long the students were done and he was congratulating them and praising them to get better.

"Well done everyone. Your new teachers will be here shortly after Iruka has given you your group assignments. I wish you all the best of luck!"

On his way back to his office, he decided to take a detour to the training grounds where the previous academy graduates were probably training. And true enough, Gai's star pupil ran past him at a ridiculous speed. The only reason that Naruto knew it was him was because of the color green and the flash of teeth as the man sped past him.

Years had passed but Lee was still the epitome of youth. Ever since his miraculous recovery at the hands of Tsunade, he had been unstoppable. His energy levels were at their all time high, not to mention he still wore green spandex and his bowl cut had never disappeared.

He was in essence, a duplicate of Maito Gai.

Naruto chuckled when that thought came to him. Replica indeed as his students were seen around the trees doing however many pushups and squats that Lee had suggested at an insane hour.

Lee's team consisted of the usual girl and two boys. He called out to them by name, "Good afternoon, Shizaru, Tsumi, and Tomo. Lovely day to be out training isn't it?"

At his greeting, all three gasped before scrambling up and standing hastily.

"Hokage-sama!" Tomo exclaimed in surprise, "Lee-sensei didn't say anything about you coming today! He said that the meeting was next week and so we were just training." Understanding dawned upon Naruto as to why they were so surprised, Tsumi glared at Tomo and quietly whispered for her to shut up.

"Oh, don't worry about that. The meeting is next week-"

"Then why are you here?" Tomo interrupted.

"I was just passing through and secretly, I didn't want to go back to the office yet," Naruto grinned at that little admission but the genin looked upon him with horror so he dropped the grin. Sighing out loud, he locked his hands behind his back and told them, "I only stopped by to see how you 

guys were doing, nothing more. The meeting is next week but I was going around the village and this happened to be where I was walking through at the moment."

Finally comprehension dawned upon Tomo. The other two had already figured it out so they had kept quiet. Silence descended among the four until Naruto started asking them about their training and how their missions had gone. He knew what missions they had done, he had assigned them himself, but he wanted some personal input that mission reports did not take into account, at least not on paper.

Not long after they began talking, Lee came to a dusty halt before the four and grinned at Naruto.

"Good afternoon Hokage-sama! Are you out for some training as well?" the green clad man asked the blond who shook his head. Naruto explained himself again then he looked up at the trees of the forest as a stronger breeze brushed past, blowing leaves around them. He suddenly felt the need to go. To where he didn't know, he just had to go.

"Continue your training. There's something that I forgot to do," Naruto explained hurriedly then he was gone in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto reappeared in the forest where the origin of his sudden compulsion had come from. Looking around with more than just his eyes, he couldn't see anyone, but he could feel a presence. He was in the upwind of that presence so he couldn't smell who it was either but whoever it was, they were there.

"Come out," was his order as he stared at the general area that the presence was in. After a few tense seconds as Naruto slowly readied his wind chakra, intending to send a blast of wind into the area, Kakashi popped into view. The white haired jounin put his hands up in a non-threatening show of surrender. Surprise clearly showed on the blonde's face when Kakashi appeared. It had not been who he was expecting, well, he didn't know who to expect but definitely not Kakashi.

He looked behind the man and his senses told him there was no one behind Kakashi. The jounin approached Naruto, who confused and suspicious, took a step back from the approaching man.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked his former teacher. Naruto studied the man before him, wondering where that other presence had gone to. His eyes scanned the surrounding trees and undergrowth but his senses picked up nothing.

"Rendezvous, that's all," Kakashi said as he watched Naruto scan the area. That response jerked Naruto's gaze back to the older man. He studied the older man once again before looking away.

"Hn," was the blonde's reply as he turned away and started heading towards the tower. He needed to get back to work as no doubt his desk was probably already covered in new documents to read along with other minor details that he had to know. He didn't have time for Kakashi's little secret meetings. The last he heard of these meetings the white haired man was seeing Anko, and that was _not_ something he needed to know about.


	9. Chapter 9

As It Is Now

Chapter 8

A/N: Sorry, another short chapter.

Either way, I don't own Naruto.

Hours later Naruto found himself thinking about that particular presence again. It might have been a romantic meeting, but something was off. No mere kunoichi or Anko, much less a civilian for that matter could hide their chakra so well from him. He thought about pushing the white-haired man for an answer but knew that that was pointless. Kakashi never spoke of anything to him unless he felt that the blond would die without that information.

That was a little exaggerated but that presence had bugged him enough that he couldn't quite concentrate on the scroll in front of him. Who would be skilled enough to hide from him besides Kakashi?

Thinking back on it, his former sensei said it was a rendezvous, meaning he might have been telling the truth and it was an informant. Knowing that the man had multiple sources of information, Naruto began thinking about any of the ones that he had met or heard of. After racking his brain for a few minutes, he gave up, he couldn't think of a single person.

Reanalyzing the presence that he felt, he told himself that it was the slight twinge of his fox demon instinct rather than a sense of chakra that had told him someone was in his village. Konoha was his territory after all, no one entered without him knowing about it.

That meant whoever it was…Naruto growled. That damned tracker! He was the only one that could have slipped past his notice and gotten into Konoha without him knowing. He remembered how the man had snuck up on him without him even realizing it. So Kakashi was still meeting with him then, and Naruto could only wonder why, unless the white-haired man was still keeping tabs on Sasuke.

That would make sense, but something about that tracker just riled the blond that he didn't want him anywhere near his Sasuke.

His Sasuke? The blonde's eyes widened at his own thoughts. Since when did Sasuke belong to him? Quickly he dismissed his own foolishness; it was probably just a slip of grammar.

Anyway, he would question Kakashi regarding the annoying tracker. For now, he forced his attention back to the scroll.

A/N Yeah, like I said, really short. Sorry, the next few chapters are gonna be short like this, but they'll be out soon (I hope). Don't worry, they're already written, it's just a matter of when I remember to post them, heh. And if anyone's noticed the weird breaks, well, as you know they're not intentional and I'm just too lazy to go and see what the problem is. If it's really a problem, let me know and I'll see what I can do about it. Thanks for reading!


	10. Chapter 10

As It Is Now

Chapter 9

I don't own much, and what I do own, well, last I checked, Naruto wasn't part of what I own 

!!

Naruto had no time to question the white haired jounin regarding the tracker as the chuunin exam had begun. Two days earlier foreign ninja had been arriving and walking around, checking out Konoha and its way of life. Due to peace times, hostilities between genin teams were low as expected. Not to mention any fighting outside the exam was strictly prohibited and resulted in automatic disqualification.

Rules for the exam changed slightly every year and were decided by the Kage of the village hosting it. This year Naruto and several other select shinobi had decided to host something similar to Naruto's first chuunin exam with various modifications. The exam was moderate, nothing too extreme for peace seemed to create less geniuses than war did.

The first part of the exam was fairly standard; the knowledge test always knocked out the majority of the competing teams. Naruto was not present for that test though, nor did he want to be. Going through that the first time had been nerve-wracking as hell. The second time hadn't been any better when he took it in Rock country.

At the moment the blond Hokage was currently conversing with the Kazekage and Tsuchikage. Rarely were there ever two or more kages located in one area but today was an exception. The Tsuchikage was only there for formalities and he would be leaving within the hour. Since the hostilities with Sound had come to an end, Naruto had built upon the previous fragile relationship that Fire had created with Rock after the Great Ninja War.

The Tsuchikage was a reserved individual who was very interested in maintaining good relations with the Hokage. While he didn't have much in common with the older man, Naruto found that he actually liked the man. He was quite intelligent and he brought up really good points. The blond found himself always learning something from the man.

Gaara on the other hand was still quiet but that didn't deter the blond from talking to him. With Gaara, they usually talked about serious things but every now and then Naruto would be able to talk him into doing something new. But despite his lack of speech, Naruto always went to the red head first when he had a problem that Kakashi wouldn't be able to answer.

"It was a pleasure to be in your companies. I apologize once more for having to leave. We must do this again another time," the Tsuchikage said as he stood up. Naruto and Gaara stood up as well, saying their farewells as the man left the room with his escorts.

Once the door closed, Naruto turned to the eyebrow-less man and grinned, "You wanna go and see the candidates?" His excitement was clearly visible and the red head inclined his head in agreement, a slight smile showing his eagerness as well. With the consent the blond led the way to another room that housed dozens of security screens that showed the Forest of Death's various entrances and other places inside the forest.

The genin had already been briefed on the rules for the second part of the exam. The second part was the part that had changed the most, simply because it was where more rules could be modified and still fulfill the purpose of having a second part to the exam.

All the teams were separated into two groups, one group was given orders to find and retrieve an enemy nin's body and locate the scroll that had been stolen. The other one was given a cryptic message as to where their comrade had hidden the scroll. Teams were to use their abilities to find the hidden scrolls. The catch was that there were only five scrolls.

There was no cooperation of comrades; if a team came upon another genin team, they were to treat the other as the enemy. The entire team needed to make it to the tower with the scroll in the same allotted amount of time, five days.

Naruto watched as the genin were separated by Yuma, a jounin a few years older than him. Anko had decided to go into ANBU again, thus leaving the role of proctor to the younger woman. Before long the whistle was heard and the exam began. The Kages watched the various screens as the genin set off into the forest.

One of the promising teams of Leaf was Hinata's team of two years consisting of a female Inuzuka, and two other boys with no special lineage. Put together specifically for recon missions, this team was particularly skilled at stealth and tracking. Naruto watched as the group passed by one of the first cameras located near the edge of the forest. Already he could see that they appeared to have an idea of where one of the scrolls was hidden and they were forming a plan. He was looking forward to that team making it to the tower. The only problem for them would be if they encountered another team with a higher offense.

Naruto glanced at Gaara who was keeping track of one of the teams that came from the Sand village. Of the two teams that came with Gaara, one team stood out to Naruto. Not surprisingly, there was another puppet master in the making on that team; it seemed that all puppet users wore strange black clothing that covered their entire body as this boy did. There wasn't a girl on this team and the other two members were rather inconspicuous next to the puppet user, at least to Naruto. He hadn't seen the other two in action yet but he assumed one if not both of them used offensive wind based justus.

Speaking of offense, Naruto hadn't seen the other Leaf team yet that he had wanted to watch. Put together for their high offense, this team was under the guidance of Neji. When Naruto had asked the stoic Hyuuga if he wanted to lead a genin team for this purpose, he had reluctantly taken leave of ANBU and agreed. In less than a year, he had recommended his team for the chuunin exam.

Like all of Konoha's genin teams, there was the usual girl and two boys. One of the boys, Takaede, was the son of Anko. She never said who the father was and no one pressed as the boy looked just like her, purple haired and temperament to match. Neither did anyone else ask her how she could have had a twelve year old kid.

But that was beside the point; Naruto shook his head mentally as he continued to scan the screens for the team. His eyes darted from one end to the other. Every few screens he would see foreign genin, some attempting to hide and others out in the open. It wasn't long before one team found another and combat ensued.

The blond turned away from that particular screen with a grimace as one team clearly outmatched the other. He had never liked to watch fights where he couldn't do anything about it. That thought brought upon another memory, making him recall the fight that Sasuke...

Again he snapped back to the present with a frown. What was wrong with him lately? He hadn't been able to keep a straight thought for the past week. And lately his brain always returned to that raven haired man. Maybe it was time to see him again, but he couldn't leave the chuunin exams. Sasuke would have to wait for another month at the most unless he could leave during the grace period, which he seriously doubted.

With that settled, he returned his attention to scanning the screens. Just as he was about to give up and suggest to Gaara that they go onto the next thing, he caught sight of Yoshiro Ryobi, Takaede's female teammate, glancing out at a clearing from behind the cover of a tree. She came from a normal family with no ninja heritage, but her genius didn't come from bloodlines; she had an affinity for genjutsu much like Kurenai although there were no blood ties between the two females.

The girl was watching a specific part of the woods opposite of her. Moments later an older man came through warily followed closely by another man of his age. Naruto saw Ryobi's hands form seals 

for the genjutsu, smiling as he recognized the sequence of the seals. It was a simple one that changed the environment to what suited the caster. Apparently, it seemed the older genin had detected something as they stopped advancing into the clearing and stood defensively.

Just as the blond wondered where the third genin was he came crashing through the brushes from the left followed by Takaede's volley of shuriken. The two genin from before glanced in their direction blindly, they were not able to see what was going on, only hearing the commotion. One thing about the girl's genjutsus was that they were simple, affecting only sight or hearing, but they were strong and difficult to dispel.

Naruto continued to watch as Takaede took down the lone genin while the last Leaf genin showed himself and quickly took down the two blind opponents.

His name was…Naruto's mind scrambled a bit to recall the youth's name. He never seemed to remember that boy's name. To be honest, the boy was pretty plain, nothing about the boy stood out physically which was a good thing for a shinobi. So that was probably why he never remembered the kid's name. Oh well, he knew what the kid was good at and that was thinking on his feet. He was proficient in jutsus and taijutsu but he was the leader of that three-man team; while being nowhere near Shikamaru, he understood and employed strategy better than any of the younger generations. He bet that the kid had been the one to plan their attack.

"Let's go," Gaara said to the blond, having watched him for the past few minutes. It was obvious that Naruto had found the ones that he was looking for, not to mention he wanted to get outside for a little fresh air. The blond turned to the red head and he nodded, "Yeah, let's go." He motioned for Gaara to head out first.

A/N

Well, what do you think of the Chuunin exams? There's gonna be more about the exam and while that may get kind of slow, please be patient as it will quicken up right away after this. I do have a plot…I swear.


	11. Chapter 11

As It Is Now

Chapter 10

I don't own Naruto. Sorry short chapter again.

The allotted time of one month after the second part of the exam went by in a hectic rush for the blond. Invitations were sent out to neighboring Daimyos and other various nobles for the third part of the exam. Naruto went over security with Kakashi and other ANBU captains, leaving seating and other hospitalities to his advisor to handle. If he wasn't in his office organizing or looking over something, which was rare, he would be seen rushing from the tower to some other location before quickly rushing back.

Today Naruto was standing in the stadium where the contenders were going to fight. Behind him was Shikamaru and Kakashi, the two that he put in charge of security. He was overlooking the arena from the seat that he would be sitting in.

This year the arena wasn't just going to be dirt with a few trees. There were a few rock encampments and even a small pond that was twelve feet deep at the lowest part. This would give the different genin some advantages and disadvantages, making the exam more interesting. They would be able to fully demonstrate their abilities and show off to the Daimyos and nobles.

From his vantage point he could see pretty much everything except the holding bay where the other genin would be waiting for their turn to fight.

Remembering his experiences inside the holding bay hallways, Naruto spoke, "Get cameras inside the hallways of the holding bay, to and from."

"Yeah," Shikamaru replied as recalled that particular time as well.

"I want ANBU placed strategically throughout the arena, especially among the crowd. You can decide their positions Shikamaru. You may use as many as you need," the blond turned to look at his former sensei, "Kakashi, no one comes into this arena without being accounted for. Post at least two sentinels at each entrance. The nobles should already have their escorts with them."

"Hmm," the white-haired man nodded. Ever since the Orochimaru's attack back at his first chuunin exam, security had been tightened every time that Konoha held the exam. Nothing had happened ever since then, but it was better safe than sorry. Besides, with no major ongoing conflicts, ANBU could be spared to patrol the final part of the exam and the city.

There had been a conflict between Kiba and a Mist genin though, but it had just been a shouting match that almost got physical. Naruto had reprimanded the dog lover and warned the genin against further disturbances. That had been handled swiftly and no more problems ensued.

"That should be it for now. The exam is in one week. Give me your appraisals in two days so that I can decide if anything needs to be changed. Kakashi, by the way, you are the proctor for this year's final exam," the blond grinned at the older man while Kakashi sputtered in shock. Before he could form a coherent protest, Naruto waved and said, "Bye! I have more things to overlook and agree on before the day is over." And he was gone in a swirl of leaves, leaving an indignant jounin and Shikamaru who just rolled his eyes.

"I thought you were going to proctor this?" the white haired man asked the younger jounin. Said former proctor merely shrugged, he didn't know either; he had always proctored for the last few exams.

"Naruto doesn't always have a reason for the things he does, sometimes he just does it because it feels right," the lazy genius answered. He knew this from experience.


	12. Chapter 12

As It Is Now

Chapter 11

I own nothing, especially not Naruto.

Having left those two behind finally, the blond dropped onto his butt on top of the Hokage monument, specifically the Third's hair. True, he did have things to overlook and approve or disapprove of, mostly just trivial things that his advisor shouldn't even bother him with. But he hadn't had any time to himself since the exam started and he was getting really restless despite the lack of sleep.

But if he was honest with himself, something he was starting to get really good at, he knew the reason why he was being so antsy. That damn Sasuke was getting really insistent lately in his thoughts and dreams. The exam was making him remember his first exam, back when all the problems really started with Sasuke; when the raven haired man wanted nothing more than to become strong.

Reminiscing now as he gazed over the village, he guessed he could have handled himself better. Okay, maybe not, he had been twelve and upset, and his patience today was just that, something that he had gained recently. No doubt if he had nonchalantly ignored Sasuke, the raven haired would have fallen over dead from shock in the hospital.

Naruto leaned onto his back as he continued his train of memories ranging from the good to the bad to the mediocre. He didn't know how long he had laid there but after thinking about that day when the team had decided to try to find out what Kakashi looked like underneath his mask, he felt it; that instinctual gut feeling that _he_ was there.

The blond didn't bother to sit up as he demanded, "What are you doing here?"

The masked man didn't answer and just as Naruto was going to lose patience the blond bent his head back and glared behind him. As was his habit, the blond was laying on one of the many rock cropping that created the Third's wild hair. The other man from what Naruto could feel was hiding behind one of the Third's smaller spikes of hair.

He was sure it was that tracker of Kakashi's, he'd bet his last cup of ramen on it, he was that sure. The lack of chakra would have made any other ninja doubt himself; but it was the lack of a chakra signature that made Naruto rely on his enhanced senses.

And it was that bastard.

"Hn, fine, don't answer then, just leave me alone," he grumbled as he resettled himself against the slanted ground. He closed his eyes stubbornly and placed his arms under his head for more comfort.

"Are you not the Hokage?"

Naruto frowned immediately, remembering those words; he was the one that had said something similar to that to Kakashi sometime ago. Deciding he couldn't ignore the bastard he growled out, "Yeah, what's it to you?"

"You have responsibilities waiting for you," the tracker said. Naruto's frown turned into a full scowl; that sounded really close to him. He opened his eyes and his scowl quickly turned into surprise to find the tracker standing over him!

"Hey!" The blond scrambled up as fast as he could, not thinking about how undignified he appeared he immediately took on a defensive stance and pointed a finger at the other man.

"What did I say? Leave me alone!" he shouted to the masked man who stood not a meter away from him. The man remained motionless, as if he knew that Naruto wouldn't do anything to him, that he couldn't do anything to him.

"Agh! You're asking for it! I've had enough of you," he yelled as he charged the other man with a prepared fist only to have the man jump back. Before Naruto swung his fist he disappeared and reappeared behind the cloaked figure and let his fist go.

The tracker ducked forward and swung out his right leg in a sweeping kick which Naruto jumped and avoided it by back flipping over the leg. He landed on the highest spike of hair and glared at the man below him despite the excitement of his beating heart.

He studied the cloaked figure for a moment, wondering why he was so exhilarated at a simple fight. The man spoke before Naruto could do anymore wondering, "Kakashi is looking for you. He's at your office." Then the man disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

"Wait-Damn you, bastard! Kakashi you ass!" The feeling of elation was gone now just like that, as fast as the other man had left. There was something about him that just ticked him off, and yet he couldn't help but feel disappointed that they hadn't done more than exchange a few moves.

He was going to find out just who that guy was, and Kakashi was waiting for him in his office. Oh he was in for it!

Sorry for reposting so many times, ffnet kept using chapter 3 instead of the actual chapter!


	13. Chapter 13

As It Is Now

Chapter 12

I don't own Naruto. Not now, not ever…maybe…no.

The blond made his way into the tower, greeting and nodding his head to several people before he continued on to the stairs. Taking the steps two at a time, he was surprised to find himself in a rush so he stopped and slowed down to one step at a time.

Outside his door he walked right into his advisor who was walking out. Backing up a step Naruto cursed his luck and opened his mouth to greet the shorter and skinny older man.

"There you are!" Fumio accused in his higher pitched voice, "Everyone's been looking for you. Come here." He turned back into Naruto's office and the blond reluctantly followed.

Naruto looked around but Kakashi wasn't in here like he said he'd be. He'd have to put off interrogating the man for later than. Much later if the gleam in his advisor's eyes was anything to go by. Naruto settled himself down into his chair for some serious lecturing, resigning his ears to the mercy of the legendary lecturer that was Fumio.

An hour later as Naruto discretely glanced at the clock on the wall he yawned and immediately covered his mouth and turned it into a cough. Too late as his advisor scowled at him and set the scroll that he had been holding down. A bit scared now that Fumio had his hands free and who knows what he was going to do to the blond, Naruto quickly started issuing apologies for yawning.

"Sorry, it's just that with everything going on I haven't had much time to sleep. You're not boring or anything," the older man's brow raised at this and Naruto panicked some more and continued, "It's just that it's only one skirmish with Lightening, we've always had problems with those guys. They've never done anything serious…So I don't see the importance of dealing with them right now…" he finished lamely.

Fumio merely continued to stare at him, but he wasn't scowling anymore. In fact, the older man picked up the scroll and started rolling it up. He let out a sigh and his expression softened a bit to something that looked slightly like understanding, but Naruto wasn't sure, he wouldn't bet any ramen cup on it.

"You're right about that, the exam is still going on and that is our first priority right now. And I have heard from Sakura that you don't get enough sleep and all you eat is that disgusting ramen," the man turned up his nose at that, and under different circumstances the blond would have defended his precious ramen with his life but for once his advisor wasn't talking down to him so he let it go. Just this once though.

"I'll bring this matter up again once the chuunin exam is over. For now, go get something decent to eat," Fumio finished and he turned to leave. Naruto did a mental victory dance; his advisor was leaving him alone for once!

"I expect you back here by seven sharp tomorrow though! We still have much to discuss and there's hardly anytime, especially since you're taking this evening off," the older man shot off before he left the office. Immediately Naruto's good mood plummeted. He got the night off but that meant he'd never leave his office for the next week at the least until the actual competition.

"Naruto?"

His head perked up at the sound of Sakura's voice as he saw her standing at the open door. Fumio hadn't closed the door after himself and he hadn't even noticed it. He really needed to concentrate and get himself together.

"Yes Sakura?" he answered with a smile while he thought about where he was going to eat and what. The pink haired woman stepped into the room and she smiled as she replied, "Fumio said to take you out for the night and help you relax. He said specifically no ramen."

"Aw, Sakura!" the blond whined. Ever since he had spent that week in Wave with Sasuke, he found himself able to smile at her again genuinely. She really tried to help him out whenever she wasn't at the hospital. So a night out with her wouldn't be too bad, as a matter of fact, he rather liked that idea. It'd been a while since he had just enjoyed her presence. Too long in fact.

"Come on Naruto, it's not that bad. There are other amazing food out there besides ramen," she teased.

"I know, but nothing will ever hold up to ramen! It's the food of the gods! It comes in so many delectable flavors and it's easy to make, there's no long wait, well, three minutes is long but-"

"Naruto! Let's go, now," Sakura interrupted his rambling of his love for ramen and went over to his desk, "Or do you need help leaving your office?"

"Ah, no, I can leave just fine," he chuckled nervously before he quickly cleaned up his desk and put away his papers and scrolls before he walked over to Sakura and announced, "See? All done and ready to go!" And with that the duo left the tower and headed out to the market district of Konoha.

A/N Haha, sorry, I couldn't help but use that line about ramen being the food of the gods. Truth is I've seen several authors use it so I don't really know who came up with it but I really like it and it's such a Naruto thing to say. Well, sorry about the late update, I'm currently working on an AU for NaruSasu that's a mix of old Chinese legend and the Naruto world. If anyone has seen Jet Li's old movies when he was still working for Hong Kong, you'll recognize the story line. The plot will be probably the exact same, the only thing is the movie doesn't have a definite ending so I'll be making up the other half of the fic as I see fit. Hope you guys check it out once I get far enough to post the first chapter and prologue.


	14. Chapter 14

As It Is Now

Chapter 13

I don't own Naruto.

Gaara greeted the blond Hokage as he stepped into the booth where they would sit for the fights. Behind the red head were his siblings, Temari and Kankuro, both who nodded their head in greeting to the blond Kage.

"How are you doing today, Gaara? How about you two? I haven't seen you two since the last chuunin exams in Suna," Naruto asked.

"Good," Kankuro answered.

"Fine, just like the last time we saw you," Temari replied.

"Good, good. Please, have a seat Gaara, the show's just about to begin!" the blond said enthusiastically. As Gaara took his seat, the other two sand siblings moved behind him. Temari turned to Shikamaru who was standing behind Naruto's chair and asked, "Why aren't you the proctor?"

"Kakashi is the proctor this year," the Nara answered as he nodded his head down towards the white haired man standing down in the middle of the arena. Temari glanced down at the one eyed jounin quizzically, but she didn't say anything else, to which Naruto was glad since he didn't want to explain himself.

Part of the reason why Kakashi was down there instead of Shikamaru was that it was partly to punish the jounin; he did it to get back at the man for all the times that he…well, just to get back at him. This way, Kakashi wouldn't be standing behind him with his smiling eye and annoying him with his smart-ass comments.

Even when the man wasn't saying something his eye would curve or tilt or do whatever his eye does, and it was like a physical poke that just annoyed him to no end. As for the other reasons why he placed Kakashi down there, well, people would see why later. At least Shikamaru and Kakashi would anyway.

Enough of that, Naruto thought, time to enjoy the display that these genin were going to give.

Out of the fifteen that made it to the tower, only seven made it here to the last part of the exam. Of those seven, only three were Leaf genin consisting of Takaede, the Inuzuka girl and that other guy that he still couldn't remember the name of. The other genins were the Sand puppet user and one of his team mates, a Rock genin and that Mist genin that had gotten into an argument with Kiba.

The first up to fight was the Inuzuka girl against the Mist Genin. Kakashi announced the fighters using a voice enhancing jutsu and the two disappeared from the holding bay balcony shortly before appearing at the entrance to the arena. He announced their names as Inuzuka Suzu and the Mist genin as Ito Yoichi. Suzu's canine companion was male if he remembered correctly, and unlike Akamaru, this dog had a blue back, much like the other dogs that the Inuzuka's were seen with.

The fight was rather short as Yoichi displayed a good affinity with his element of water. Suzu and her dog weren't really able to do much against the water jutsus beside dodge them and they were exhausted quickly after one of Yoichi's justus landed on them. Kakashi decided the match over and called Yoichi the winner.

Applause and cheers were heard throughout the stadium as the crowd started to liven up. It was a good match to start off with, enough action to get the viewers excited.

Next Kakashi called out Mitarashi Takaede and Nakamura Iwao as the next contenders. With this year's Leaf rookie the crowd went even crazier if the cheers and noise coming from the audience were any indication. After Kakashi declared the fight to begin, the purple haired boy didn't disappoint his fans as he leapt into the fight head on.

Naruto looked on with a grin on his face. He had nothing against the Rock genin, but he really wanted the kid to win, Leaf pride that's all. With every punch and kick the crowd oohed and ahhed; the earth justus that Iwao was performing were very well done and thought out. The walls of stone and waves of rock that he hurled at Takaede made the purple haired boy struggle to dodge and try to land somewhere safe so he could make some sort of offensive move.

After a while Takaede landed on top of one of the trees and performed a quick set of seals. It seemed that he had finally had enough of running and dodging. After the seals and nothing happened the crowd became confused as he charged the Rock genin, dodging the rock walls that sprung up to try to stop him.

As the Leaf genin got closer, the more walls Iwao sent up. Before Takaede reached his opponent, one wall spiked up and pierced the Leaf genin! The crowd gasped as they saw the limp body a second before it poofed into smoke.

Everyone's eyes darted about the arena looking for the boy and in that second after the clone disappeared Takaede burst out from the ground before Iwao and delivered an uppercut to the genin, effectively knocking him out.

Naruto chuckled loudly and applauded. It seemed that Neji had taught the boy well as he and those who had been present at his first exam recognized the move that had defeated the proud Hyuuga.

Kakashi declared the match over and Takaede advanced onto the next round. Medic nins came out and took the unconscious Rock Genin out.

The next two that were announced was the Sand puppet user and Takaede's team mate. Naruto paid special close attention to the name of the Leaf boy as Kakashi announced them. Watanabe Tsuneo and Takado Ryo, Leaf and Sand respectively were seen walking into the arena. Ah, no wonder he never remembered that boy's name, it was so _ordinary_. He'd have to remember it now since he had to file paperwork on him.

The puppet user in contrast had a much more interesting name and a way more eccentric look to him. Covered from head to toe in black, Naruto wondered how that genin could survive the desert heat of Suna. He carried a heavy looking puppet across his back much like Kankuro still does.

Naruto had never liked puppets so the only thing he was looking forward to was Tsuneo kicking that guy's butt, no offense to Gaara and the others. He looked at the red head next to him and grinned. The eyebrow-less man turned to look at the blond and the bet was on. They hadn't fought each other since Shikaku had taken over but the rivalry, albeit small, was still there.

Of course there was nothing wrong with betting, everyone who could afford it was doing it. There was a stand located at the top of the arena that gamblers could find out the stakes and bet on the contenders. Naruto didn't know what the odds were with this pair but he guessed it was pretty even considering it was Tsuneo's smarts versus Ryo's puppet.

As the fight started, as most Leaf shinobi were wont to do, Tsuneo took on the defensive to observe his opponent's strengths and weaknesses. The puppet user moved immediately onto the offensive, trying to push his advantage and defeat the other quickly before he could form any plans.

Watching the two go at it, Naruto lifted a hand up to cheer when the Leaf genin dodged the puppet user's jutsu just in time. With his hand half way down he looked at Gaara with a smug grin on his face but the red head wasn't looking at him. Not about to lose his smugness, Naruto started to turn back to the fight when something beyond Gaara caught his eyes.

To Gaara's left in the stands was an ANBU with a particular mask on. The man wasn't anywhere near them but Naruto recognized the blue striped fox mask that stared back at him. Naruto continued to stare the tracker down, wondering why the heck he was posted as a guard. Wasn't he under Kakashi's jurisdiction? Well, unless Kakashi had told him to be there.

First was the incident at the Hokage Monument and now here he was just staring at him. And he knew that bastard was staring at him, he just knew it. Was Kakashi telling him to baby-sit him? Or was he just doing it to annoy him? Probably both.

What the hell was Kakashi thinking? He was going to make interrogating his former teacher his top priority as soon as this whole exam business was over with.

He was so busy glaring at the tracker that when the crowd stood up and cheered loudly, Naruto glanced down at the arena in confusion. The match was over and he had missed it! He glanced back at the blue fox only to see that he was no longer there. The blond growled, annoyed that he had missed the match.

"It seems that you have won this time," Gaara spoke. The red head's words startled the blond back to his current surroundings.

"Really? Tsuneo actually beat that guy?" he laughed and started to brag about Leaf shinobi in general. The two sand siblings rolled their eyes at his antics and Gaara just remained silent, until Naruto had quieted down.

"I'm looking forward to the next match with your Leaf genin and Ryo's teammate, Hokori. That one will definitely be the highlight of the exam," Gaara said with a hint of excitement in his eyes. Naruto just stared at him, this was the most excited that he had ever seen the red head. Thinking back to when they were in that security room, he hadn't really paid any attention to how the other two Sand genins had fought.

And the way that Gaara seemed so sure of the outcome made Naruto worry a bit about what was going to happen. But he quickly shook it off as was his fashion and said bravely, "Bring it on! Takaede can handle whatever Hokori can throw at him!"

**A/N** Yeah, sorry to cut it short. Anyway, to come up with Tsuneo's name I looked up the most common Japanese names online and I picked that. It's not important at all, just an extra detail to fatten up the story, not to mention as Hokage Naruto needs to know the name and face of most of his ninja. Well, until next time! Thanks for reading! XD


	15. Chapter 15

As It Is Now

Chapter 14

I don't own Naruto.

A crestfallen Naruto pouted as Temari and Kankuro snickered over the brave words that he had said at the beginning of the match. Shikamaru just sighed and mumbled under his breath. Gaara had a smile on his face and that alone spoke volumes.

Takaede was being taken out of the arena on a stretcher. He had fought valiantly and as well as a genin could but he hadn't been able to handle the vicious wind jutsus that Hokori had delivered one after another.

Now there was just Tsuneo, Hokori and Ito left in the finals. Tsuneo's opponent would be Ito and the match was already beginning as Kakashi stepped back when the Mist genin began his attack.

Despite the importance of this match, Naruto's attention was again wandering around the stands looking for that particular blue mask. A blur of blue to his right had him turning quickly only to see a civilian standing up to cheer. Another blue blur back to his left had him turning again.

Gaara turned to give him a stare; Naruto was quite distracting with his unintentional antics. It took a moment before the blond felt his gaze on him. He turned to look at Gaara sheepishly, muttering an apology before concentrating back on the match at hand. He stared at the blond for another second then returned his attention as well.

Two seconds later and Naruto practically jumped out of his seat.

"Gotta go, Shikamaru, you're in charge!" He didn't even remember to leave a clone in his stead as he disappeared. The match was at a crucial climax, so the shadow-user guessed no one besides them had noticed the blonde's departure. Somehow, that was probably the intention although he doubted Naruto himself thought of that.

Out loud he sighed at having been troubled to take over the Hokage's duties while the actual Hokage was off doing who knows what. The older Sand siblings just stared, flabbergasted that Naruto had just run off like that and Shikamaru hadn't even bat and eye at it.

In an attempt to save Naruto's image as a responsible Hokage, Shikamaru explained, "He's usually got a good reason for running off like he does, otherwise the council would have thrown him out long ago."

"Does he need help? Shouldn't you send some backup?" Kankuro asked.

"Nah, he would have said something if he needed help." Although the words came out of his mouth, he couldn't really believe how lame it still sounded. Then again, when did he care what people thought of him?

!!11

Naruto stood on top of the Hokage monument, the last place that he had contact with the tracker who now stood not too far away from the ledge that was the fourth's hair. The irritating man had been appearing and reappearing in different places in the arena driving Naruto crazy. So when he could no longer see the blue, he had come here and behold, here he stood.

Wanting to bash the man's head in and deflate that superiority complex, Naruto took a step towards the cloaked figure.

"Problem?" the tracker had the nerve to ask and sound amused by it! Naruto was starting to see red and he retorted back, "Yeah I got a problem, and it's standing right in front of me!" He charged the other man and the fight was on.

The tracker disappeared and reappeared behind the blond who whirled around and threw a punch to make up for it. The punch was dodged and returned with a sweeping kick that Naruto jumped over.

A quick uppercut had caught Naruto in midair. Immediately he was gone in a puff of smoke and the tracker didn't have time to dodge the charge from behind that sent both of them over the edge.

Quick reflexes had them using chakra on the mountain wall to slow their downward fall even as they continued to deliver, dodge and block kicks and punches.

At the bottom, the fight quickly escalated as buildings and posts were used as obstacles and tools to gain ground. Unsurprisingly, the villagers were not there to witness their Hokage fighting a possible intruder. However, several ANBU appeared and looked like they were about to join in and help their leader.

"Stay out of this!" A quick snarl from Naruto had them keeping their distance. He wasn't about to have help beating up this asshole.

After a few minutes of fighting inside the village though, they were both careful of property, Naruto gleaned that the other man was holding back and merely matching him. Of course they were only using taijutsu, nothing chakra consuming.

He was no expert at taijutsu and many could probably beat him using taijutsu alone, but there was something about the way this guy moved that nagged at his memory. Most details of his movement were covered by that damn cloak but the way that he flowed felt familiar. Heck, he wasn't even thinking about his attacks, they were just happening like he had done this a hundred times before.

That's when the thought hit him.

It couldn't be! But then it would make a hell of a lot of sense. Damn Kakashi! He was gonna torture him when he saw him next! His attention refocused on the man in front of him and he renewed his vigor.

He had another reason to take him down now if he was right.

And his instinct was always right.

**A/N** Well, hehe, I know I don't like cliff hangers myself but if you haven't guessed who it is…then you're slower than Naruto ;) I combined two short chapters for this one since a reviewer told me that I'm kinda slow with my plot advancements. Thanks for letting me know! I didn't realize it was like that, sorry everybody, I was just trying to fatten the story and enrich the life of the village. I don't like stories that get right to the pairing and then it's all dialogue about their feelings and whatnot. Thanks for reading!


	16. Chapter 16

As It Is Now

Chapter 15

Hmm, last I checked I wasn't Kishimoto…Wait, wait…Darn, for a moment there I almost thought I was. Shoot. Oh well, onto the story XD

His burst of energy didn't seem to affect his opponent, in fact it seemed like he had been expecting it for some time now. This settled Naruto's mind about what he was about to do.

Years of perfecting his shadow clone technique had paid off for moments like these. He stood hidden on the roof top of a building as he watched his clones go at it. Catching the tracker's eyes, he motioned for them to go elsewhere.

Naruto led the way to team 7's old training grounds. Standing by the three wooden posts, he waited for the tracker to appear. Not about to disappoint, the masked tracker appeared a second later.

The glare that he sent seemed to bounce right off the blue fox mask so he made up for it by walking over to him and punching the man right in the mask.

The sound of porcelain cracking echoed throughout the training ground. The man hadn't bothered to block that punch as he had so easily done before. Despite the cracking of the mask, it still stayed attached to the face that he wanted to see.

Naruto's hand reached up, about to violently rip the damn thing off but a hand caught his. As if he knew, the tracker's other hand reached up and undid the strap holding the mask in place. The strap loosened and the porcelain started sliding off.

His face showed his tepidity during the longest second ever in his life. Even waiting for ramen to boil wasn't this bad.

The face, finally free of the mask, was revealed to Naruto as none other than the one that had been haunting him lately.

"Sasuke."

The breathless whisper didn't break the locked gazes of black and blue. Ever since he left Sasuke at that village, he thought about returning, but never once did he think that Sasuke would come here like this.

He wanted to hug him and as soon as that thought popped into his head, he acted on it. The other was stiff and unyielding; he doubted that the raven haired man was expecting a hug, a punch maybe, but not a hug. After a moment he pulled back and noticed the broken skin on the pale cheek from his brutal punch.

His next urge was to wipe at it but he held himself back, Sasuke just might beat him for being weird.

They continued to stare at each other for another moment before Naruto once again threw a punch. This time Sasuke blocked it and they fell into a routine of kicks and punches as they continued where they left off. His earlier anger resurrected itself.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me you've been keeping in touch with Kakashi all this time?" he growled out while he sent a lethal jab toward the other man, "And what's the deal between you and him anyway?" Not that he would ever consider Sasuke even liking Kakashi that way; it was still hard not to want to bash his former teacher's head in for keeping Sasuke to himself.

"I suppose it was too much to think you would have realized right away what was going on when Kakashi first brought it up," he replied sarcastically. That was Sasuke's way of telling him that all the attempts he had at contacting him had been really obvious clues as to his identity.

"Hey! Well, you could have just said something instead of acting like a jerk and…being yourself," Naruto huffed realizing that his best friend had been really obvious by acting just like he normally would and apparently still is. They both trailed off their attacks once Naruto realized his own blindness.

No more words were said as an ANBU appeared behind Sasuke and spoke, "Hokage-sama, the Chuunin exam is almost over and Shikamaru requests your presence for the closing ceremony."

Naruto nodded, "Tell him that I'll be there shortly."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," and the ANBU left in a swirl of leaves.

The blond had kept his gaze on Sasuke the entire time. With his eyes still on the man he said, "I'll deal with you and Kakashi later, bastard," the familiar nickname rolling off his tongue easily. He turned to the ANBU that had been quick enough to follow them and growled out, "Not a word about this, understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the ANBU bowed respectfully before stepping back and disappearing. He turned his attention back to the man of the hour. His mind quickly calculated how fast he could get out of the closing ceremony and the other niceties with the lords and noblemen. Not to mention he needed to fill out paperwork and evaluate the genin and see who would be promoted and who wouldn't. But that could maybe wait until tomorrow at least.

Damn, this was bad timing for Sasuke-for him to realize where Sasuke was the entire time. He had questions that he wanted answers to right now, but he also knew that it could wait at least until tonight. He narrowed his eyes as he continued to weigh his options. Finally he came to a conclusion.

"You, bastard, meet me here tonight. I'll talk to you then and I want answers," Naruto ordered in a no-debate tone. Just as he was about to leave he said softly, "Oh, welcome back by the way," accompanied by his famous smile. In a swirl of leaves, a trademark of higher Leaf shinobi, he teleported away to his duties.

!!

Unfortunately he had never made it to the meeting that he set for the two of them. That night was spent in a briefing for the skirmishes with Lightening that had suddenly escalated in the last day. Not to mention it seemed Orochimaru was stepping up his game as well. Despite the partial death of the snake Sannin, Naruto had discovered a little under half year ago that the creep was back and he was up to something.

Orochimaru slowly over the years had finally taken over Kabuto's body. Reports of his activities were starting to build up, especially after the chuunin exams. He was going to have to do something about it soon. This was bad timing with Lightening as well. The two issues were at almost different parts of the country and would stretch their forces thin.

So he decided this was going to be one of the reasons that he would use to back up his appeal to reinstate Sasuke; the Uchiha was a strength that they needed at the moment.

That old hag Koharu and Homura were for some annoying reason still alive, along with Danzou. As much as he wished otherwise for their long awaited demise, he had information against them regarding the Uchiha massacre.

He hoped he wouldn't have to use it. It was a secret he hoped would die with him. Konoha was great but only as long as those who made the decisions kept the means to themselves. Unfortunately people like Sasuke were the ignorant victims of political machinations.

So he sent orders for them to meet him in the afternoon of the following day to explain to them what he wanted to do. He had sent out a message to the council members as well that he was calling a meeting tonight to reinstate Sasuke as a Konoha ninja. He ignored any questions, telling the ones who had saw him in person to explain. He told them questions should be held until the meeting.

And here they were, Kakashi and Sasuke were standing before him in his office to explain just what the hell had been going on for the past five years.

Kakashi stood there with his usual slouch and drooping eye. Sasuke was still in his usual getup that he wore whenever he was around Konoha.

Naruto had been looking at them for a while now before he spoke one word: Explain.

"What?" was Sasuke's response to the broad question.

"You know what I'm talking about, teme. Tell me why you've been missing still even after you killed Itachi. Why you stayed away from the village. Why you never told anyone that you were still alive!"

"I did," he answered calmly back. Naruto paused momentarily in shock. He wasn't really expecting an answer, let alone that answer.

"What do you mean you did?"

"I came back and I spoke with Tsunade." At the mention of the blonde woman, Naruto's eyes unconsciously narrowed in sorrow. Neither of the other two missed this slight action. He looked away from the raven haired man but Sasuke took that as a sign to continue.

"I returned in a time of turmoil. I didn't want to stay even though she insisted. So I made a deal with her. I would take missions outside Konoha to help out. If she needed me, she'd contact me. I didn't want to stay in the village," he stopped and waited for the questions that would come. As expected that wasn't even enough to satisfy the blond.

"What do you mean you didn't want to stay? Why didn't you want to come back? Konoha is your home as much as it's mine!" the blond was getting upset again; all because it came back to that question of why. Sasuke had never answered in the past when he asked why he hadn't come back.

Onyx eyes locked onto azure ones and he told him what he had found out after Itachi's death. Konoha's leaders' decision to prevent an upheaval; a civil war, everything that Madara and Itachi had told him. He had investigated further and had found truth in their words. He told the blond of Itachi's mission and his sacrifice for peace. He spoke of episode with Madara and their pseudo goal to take down while trying to find out the real truth.

Shocked that Sasuke had known about this Naruto sat at his desk with a pained expression on his face. He knew what the council elders were capable of, what they were willing to do for the sake of the village. Danzou and Homura, those two were heartless old men who would do anything to keep peace. They had grown up in times of war and while it was understandable that they never wanted to experience it again, this was merely an example of the lengths that they were willing to go to.

He had found out about the secret mission that Itachi had been on since he first joined ANBU until his death. Even Tsunade had been unaware of it while Jiraiya had been too busy tracking down his former teammate to care for political antics.

A grim look took the place of pain and he focused back on Sasuke's face; he didn't realize that he had looked away.

"I understand," he said quietly, "I found out about it a while ago actually. I hoped to get to you before you got to him but I never did." He didn't need to say sorry as Sasuke wouldn't care about that. He would just have to make it better for his friend to show him that he was sorry that such a tragedy befell him.

"Things like that will be no more. I'm in charge now and I'll see that the end doesn't justify the means." Naruto took a little time to think about his next words. He had to ask just right or Sasuke would either not tell him or omit parts of the truth.

"So you've been here and there in Konoha for the past five years?" a nod answered that question. This was where Naruto watched him closely for any reaction.

"Then why did you choose now to tell me? Kakashi didn't give me that scroll just because he wanted to. He wouldn't have let me run off to find you if you hadn't let him. He'd do almost anything for you," he finished quietly. _He_ would do anything for him.

"Hn," he didn't answer. Of course not, Kakashi was standing right there next to him. Naruto felt like dragging his hand down his face in frustration. He'd ask Sasuke again later then.

"That's-whatever, so long as you're here and here to stay too," his tone was almost cheerful as he smiled brightly to push back his negative thoughts. He leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up 

onto his desk almost knocking his papers and scrolls over. He jerked forward to try and steady the stack but leaned back when it was unneeded.

"Well, let's get down to the ugly business then. I want you reinstated as a Konoha ninja," he stated bluntly. He rubbed his chin with one hand as he contemplated his plan of action. Knowing now that Sasuke himself knew what had really happened all those years ago, there was no reason to not use this against Homura and Danzou to gain even more leverage in his appeal.

"The hearing's tonight. I've already told you two about it. Both of you will speak your part. The council for the most part will be happy for your return." The two standing knew that the council would be glad only for the fact that his return meant Naruto would no longer be running off and trying to find him.

"The only ones who would really oppose would be Danzou and Homura, maybe even Koharu simply because it's me.

"I'll give reasons for your reinstatement, you will give them your word on his behavior for the past five years as Tsunade left you in charge of him," he looked at Kakashi as he said those words, then back to Sasuke, "There will be the fact that you pretty much took down Itachi and Orochimaru." He hadn't informed anyone yet of Orochimaru's movements and actions. The only ones who knew were the informants who had told him and were currently keeping tabs on him.

"And your skills as a ninja, especially the Sharingan, can't be overlooked. It'll be a strong point in your favor. Konoha, despite the council's wishes otherwise, needs strength at the moment. What the village thinks of your return is no issue to you I know so a reason for your reinstatement shouldn't be required to be given to them. I will not make a public announcement once you are a Konoha ninja." He looked at the other two. Kakashi hadn't said a word yet since he arrived. It was quite a feat as he didn't even have his perverted book out.

Actually, he hadn't had the book out in a while. Since Jiraiya's death, that book had appeared less and less often. Naruto only saw it when the white-haired man was making a point of ignoring someone. The thought that there would never be a new one coming out made him sad again but he shook it off. There was no time to mourn now, that time had passed over years ago.

This hearing was just one of the many things he had to discuss with the council and hear their opinions on. He had to get it over with.

"Any questions," he asked after a moment of thinking. He was answered with silence and he sighed. He wondered if every time they came in here it would always feel like he was talking to himself.

"I'll see the two of you tonight then," he dismissed them. His eyes followed Sasuke's back as the two left through the door. He longed to call out and ask the other to stay for a little bit longer, even if they didn't talk, he just wanted his presence for a little bit longer.

But there was no reason for that. He'd have plenty of time to spend with Sasuke later. He had things to do first before that happened though. Naruto sighed again and leaned forward. His advisor was off for the night. That was good, he didn't think he could stand for those knowing eyes and that quick tongue.

It was then when he was still staring at the door that he realized his mental promises to torture his former sensei never really happened. Yet.

If anyone heard the evil cackle coming from the Hokage's office they wisely chose to ignore it for fear of their life.

Naruto was going to set aside certain missions for the masked man. And that would only be the start of it. He smiled evilly; as Hokage he rarely got outside to do things for fun. He'd been a good boy for so long, it felt really good to do something just for the kick of it. Oh revenge was going to be sweet!

!!

The room was now empty except for Naruto. The council had more or less given in without too much fuss. Even Homura and Koharu didn't protest as much as he thought they would. It made him 

suspicious but all he could do was add that thought to the millions that were swarming around at the back of his mind.

Thinking back on it now, his reasons were valid and most importantly, solid. He had planned on using Orochimaru's resurrection (the man hadn't died, technically. Why won't he just die?!) as a reason to have Sasuke on their side and in the village in case the creep had anymore plans about taking possession of his body.

It hadn't come down to that even. He didn't even need to point out that the village was still slowly growing and gathering ninja and Sasuke would be a good edition.

If he were a gambling man, he would have bet his entire frog wallet that all he really had to do was say Sasuke was a Konoha ninja, stomp his foot, frown and he'd have won the hearing. Not only that, he'd won on another issue as well.

He had pushed for another point during the end of the hearing that he hadn't told anyone about. Thus the surprise coming from pretty much everyone except the Nara clan was understandable.

He was placing Sasuke on the council, as was his right as clan head; even though there really was no clan yet. No one could come up with a good reason to deny him aside from the fact that there wasn't a clan. At the mention of that lack the one who spoke up immediately shut up as he glanced at the stoic Uchiha.

Sasuke hadn't reacted to the news at all. Naruto didn't think he'd care for it, but whether or not he realized it, being on the council would give him a lot of say into decision making. He'd be able to prevent such decisions like the one that had cost him everything.

The others despite their attempt to block the move, more so out of habit than reason, weren't too upset. They were willing to let him back but the main issue was no one really trusted him and what he would do, could do, if offended. That would change though, Naruto thought to himself. This was good enough for now. After the death of two of his precious people, he had learned the hard way to take it one day at a time. In this case it was one task at a time.

It had been hard, but he had learned never to tackle too much at once. Even for him that would be impossible.

With all his demands at the moment being taken care of pretty much, he had waited for the others to file out. Sasuke, intelligent man that he was, didn't wait up for him but was actually the first out the door.

Naruto spent some more time just enjoying the quiet. He'd never have guessed that he would miss silence. When he was nothing more than a brat, he hadn't been able to stand the silence at all. Even if it was just his own voice or racket, he'd do it just so he wouldn't feel surrounded by that suffocating blanket of no noise.

Now, he couldn't wait to kick people out of his office or leave the meeting rooms so he could wallow in silence. Even that fox respected him enough to leave him alone when he was like this. Over the years though, as his father had designed it, the demon's chakra had been merging with his own until there wasn't much of a distinction anymore between his and the demon's.

It made his chakra appear purple, but the biggest change was that Naruto could no longer see the demon inside of his mind. The gates were fading and signs of the fox were fading as well. He hadn't ventured into the depths of his mind lately to seek out the demon so he supposed he probably wouldn't find anything there anymore.

Speaking of fading, his seal on his stomach had also been fading. Absentmindedly he rubbed at his belly. He had woken up one morning and was undressing for a shower. In front of the mirror he had stretched and glanced at his stomach to find the marking almost gone. Channeling chakra into it didn't make a difference at all.

It was most likely gone by now. That had been months ago. Any logical explanation would be that the merging was complete or almost complete. His senses had sharpened a lot over the years to the 

point where even if someone as skilled as Sasuke hid their chakra he'd still feel them in his home, aka Konoha.

Just then his stomach rumbled.

"Ugh," he moaned pitifully. When was the last time he ate anything? He stood up with a frown on his face; he couldn't remember when he ate last. Well, only one way to fix that! He left the room behind and mentally he wished he could just leave his thoughts behind just as easily. His mind wandered so often these days that he would think about something only for his mind to relate it to something else and before he knew it, missing nins brought up need for Konoha shinobi which changed into bananas and monkeys that jumped on Sasuke.

Naruto shook his head. Everything always went back to Sasuke! He supposed he wouldn't have half of the problems he had now if not for Sasuke. But then if not for Sasuke….he didn't really want to finish that thought.

Sasuke.

Just thinking about him either made him angry or silly, the later being something that had just recently developed after he came back from the little village. At the moment to those who were still in the tower it was obvious that it was the later. Naruto had a wide grin on his face and he answered dazedly to their good-byes as he left the tower.

No matter what Sasuke did, their Hokage would always forgive him. Despite the man's reputation and attitude, it was obvious to anyone that he made their precious blond happy.

!!

"One bowl of miso ramen please!" Naruto ordered even before he sat down at the ramen bar. It was almost closed but the old man would stay open late just for his favorite customer.

"Coming right up!" he answered. Ayame had moved on with her life and had gotten married. Her husband was a teacher at the civilian school and she herself was a proud mother of two with one more on the way. Every now and then she'd bring her kids to the ramen bar and help her father out. With her due date so close though Naruto hadn't seen her in a while.

Even without his daughter, the old man still ran the shop like he did every day since before Naruto could remember.

"You might want to make a few extra, it's been a while since I've been this hungry!" Naruto spoke loudly with his cheer. The old man smiled and handed him his bowl. The blonde's eyes lit up at the bowl and he gave a hearty itadakimas before practically inhaling the noodles.

Another customer who had still been sitting at the bar watched with amused eyes as Naruto consumed bowl after bowl. He watched the way those blue eyes, darker now that the sun had gone down, brightened at the sight of ramen. He gazed at the smile that graced the blonde's face as he asked for one last bowl from the shop keeper.

Naruto finished his seventh and last bowl and paid and thanked the old man before he gave his attention to the other customer. Said customer hadn't minded; there was no reason to rush. He knew that there was no use talking to Naruto when there was ramen in front of him.

"Sasuke," Naruto greeted the other with a smile. For a moment Sasuke merely stared back at him before he responded back, "Naruto."

A mutual understanding passed between them and they both stood up. This was one conversation that was going to stay between them. As much as he adored the old man for his ability to make the most wonderful and bestest ramen in the world, he didn't want to talk to Sasuke in front of him.

"Good night, old man. That was amazing, I'll have to come by more often now that I have one less person to chase down." The man smiled at the blonde's open jab at his friend as he bid them farewell and good night. They both missed the friend rolling his eyes at their antics.

The two of them walked quietly through the streets of Konoha. Where they were going, Naruto didn't really know, didn't really care. His feet were moving on their own and he couldn't tell if Sasuke was leading the way or if he was.

He thought briefly about heading towards the training grounds or at least the Hokage Monument. But such thoughts were quickly dashed when they came to an open street that ran alongside the creek that snaked its way around Konoha. To their right was team seven's bridge, or so they had dubbed it.

Nothing was said still as they continued straight for it. Walking onto it, Naruto stopped walking halfway across it and turned to the side to lean over the railing and watch the moon reflect off the surface of the water. Sasuke didn't follow suit but merely leaned back against the opposite railing and watched him.

The words came out of his mouth without warning. It seemed the silence wouldn't last any longer tonight.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Naruto turned to face the man that had always constantly been on his mind, much like the moon on the surface of the water.

"Our initials are still here too, look," he pointed out to the side of him where they had each carved their initials into the railing. They had claimed this bridge as their own.

"It's still our bridge. Hardly anyone ever walks by here. Truthfully I don't think anyone ever did. I don't even remember when we started meeting here but it just happened one day and I guess it became habit to wait here for Kakashi," he rambled fondly.

"Do you think about the old days?" he asked the raven haired boy tentatively. The man looked away for the first time since they walked onto the bridge. Naruto waited and sure enough he was rewarded with an answer.

"Sometimes," he never looked at Naruto when he spoke, "I never thought about it when I was with Orochimaru. Every now and then when I was chasing Itachi with the other three that I came across signs of you and the others; that's when memories of what had been crossed my mind. But with Itachi still alive, there was no room for anything else."

That statement that he said, the blond believed true. While Itachi lived he was bigger than life to Sasuke and there was just no room for anyone else. Now it was a different story though, he would personally see to it.

"After leaving the village and the meeting with Tsunade, I didn't look back and I never thought I would. It wasn't until a year later that Tsunade ordered me to come to the village and give my report in person from then on that I saw you…signs of you.

"Snatches of conversations here and there praising you, worrying about you and your unhealthy obsession, happy people, the usual signs of Uzumaki Naruto. But most of all I saw hope here in Konoha. For the next couple of years even with you as Hokage, I still kept in contact with Kakashi." Naruto didn't say anything. Even the air felt like it had stopped, holding its breath as everything waited for Sasuke to continue.

"Our deal was over the moment she died," he finished and turned partly to look at Naruto out from the corner of his eye. The silent implications that went unsaid caused Naruto's heart to pump faster. What did this mean? So Sasuke kept in contact even though he didn't have to?

"What made you keep up with the deal?" Naruto almost didn't want to ask for fear that whatever spell had befallen them would break and Sasuke would stop talking.

"I wanted to see for myself," he turned fully to stare at the blond. Naruto's mind raced through all his thoughts, scrambling around for what Sasuke wanted to see. In the end he came up blank and blinked.

"Uh, see what?" and the spell was broken as Sasuke looked past Naruto causing the blond to turn around to see what was behind him. Movement from his front made him whip his head back to see Sasuke pulling away from the railing that he was leaning on.

He was leaving?!

"Sasuke? What did you want to see?" Naruto asked almost desperately. The raven haired man had already turned and had started walking away. Panic gripped Naruto and his hand shot out, grabbing the other man's sleeve like a soul clinging to a dying body.

"Sasuke!" Annoyance flashed in his onyx eyes when he turned to yank the blond off his sleeve, but any cutting remark died on his tongue when he saw those blue eyes begging him not to go. Still annoyed he grabbed Naruto's hand and easily loosened the death grip.

"Dobe, I'm not leaving," his tone was soft but firm as he stared right into those blue eyes to make sure he got his point across. It took a second but the moment Sasuke's words pierced his panic Naruto blinked and looked down at his hands. He immediately pulled back and started stuttering.

"S-Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I-I…It's just that the thought of…Sorry," he babbled out as his cheeks darkened in an embarrassed flush at acting so childish. Sasuke flicked him in the forehead admonishingly.

"It's late, you need to sleep. I know you haven't been sleeping much."

"Yeah, you're right. Good night Sasuke," Naruto conceded and starting walking off the bridge with Sasuke still standing there.

"Good night Naruto," he said quietly but the blond heard it anyway. He made his way to his apartment and as he was getting into bed a thought struck him; how did Sasuke know that he hadn't been sleeping well?

**A/N** Well, what do you guys think? Was that confusing? Cuz to me it was confusing putting it together ( I wrote parts separately at different times and different places so I'm not sure if I explained everything or if I just think I did cuz it's in my head) I hope I didn't miss anything. Well, there are some holes here and there but they are on purpose because I'm trying to keep this all from Naruto's perspective even though it's not him narrating. He doesn't know everything so what he doesn't know, the readers (that's you guys) won't know, but what he does see (like the things going on around him) you will see and put two and two together, even if he doesn't.

And sorry this is so long but I'm giving you guys a head's up with what I plan on going with this fic. My chapters are gonna get longer, but they might take anywhere from a couple days to a week or two before I update. Not to mention I'm working on Legendary right now as well and I'm currently stewing a modern fic with Naruto and Sasuke which should be out sometime in June.

So, this fic is a lot about their everyday life (sorry, trying to make it as realistic as possible and still have exciting drama too) and I'm not sure where I want to end it yet, I was even thinking earlier today about mpreg (in a sequel or epilogue, not here) due to the lack of a clan statement from before. Things are going to get hectic if my foreshadowing of events comes to light. And I just lost my train of thought, I don't remember what I was trying to get across to you guys. Yeah, that's my brain for you, it's a wonder I can concentrate long enough to write a story. Well, thanks for reading! XD

edit: lol, I just remembered what I wanted to say. If Sasuke appears out of character, um, well, the death of his brother and his discoveries have mellowed him out some since then. And Naruto's not gonna turn to mush everytime he's around Sasuke. I guess you could say underneath the moon some people get a little more daring, hehe.


	17. Chapter 17

As It Is Now

Chapter 16

I doesn't own Naruto at all. Nope, not one iota. Heh

You can skip A/N if you want but I do a heck of a lot of explaining there; it's not just pointless rambles, haha, hopefully not. Well, enjoy!

!!

"Ahhchooo!" Naruto sneezed as he bent over the intelligence reports that came in last night that he had only gotten to today. It was late in the afternoon now and Kakashi should be just done with his first class at the academy. They were a bunch of six year olds and fresh from the bosom of their families; pretty much bratty as hell and impossible to control unless you had awesome kid-skills like Iruka.

No doubt the man was cursing him at the moment. He couldn't help but grin at the thought. Too bad this was the last of the torturous missions that he had given to the man. Naruto cackled anyway again for the nth time that day after handing Kakashi his mission. Once his laughter died down he focused once more on the kanji in front of him.

Almost a month had passed since the trial. Instead of performing D-rank missions like some people had wanted, Naruto had argued that it was worthless. Sasuke's skills shouldn't be wasted on such basic missions that genin fresh from the academy could handle easily. He had won support for sending the Uchiha on higher ranking missions; on a team of course and Kakashi would always be there.

It would be ideal if Naruto were there as well but such a thing couldn't be arranged. As it was though, Sasuke was exhibiting good behavior and obeying orders just fine, be it from the squad captain or from Kakashi. Right now he was in the north patrolling with another team without Kakashi looking after him. He was expected to return periodically to report to Naruto to ensure that he hadn't left again. If his good behavior continued, pretty soon he'd be completely integrated as a full-fledged jounin or ANBU.

Aside from Sasuke's smooth transition back into Konoha, nothing else seemed to go as smoothly. Cloud (1) had increased their brave ventures into Konoha's posts and other places in Fire Country. Naruto had sent several squads out to closely patrol their northern borders to prevent them from trying anything more than scouting.

He wasn't sure what they were up to but he didn't like it. Leaf and Cloud had never been on friendly terms even before the Third Ninja War. It would be pointless to contact the Kage; he was sure all he'd get back was a load of bullshit claiming ignorance, if he got a response at all.

He had sent Sasuke to the north with a double purpose. If anything happened with Orochimaru then he would get to Sound faster to deal with it. Speaking of the Sannin, he had broken the news of Orochimaru's activities a couple of weeks of ago.

Disbelief was the first reaction. Even Sasuke had given Naruto a quizzical look. Of course, he had left the Sound hideout as soon as he had absorbed Orochimaru; he hadn't stayed to witness Kabuto's experimentation. Naruto himself had encountered the traitor partway through the takeover.

"_So Orochimaru is alive then," Shikamaru confirmed. His normally droopy eyes were calculating and serious. No one in the Hokage's office was happy to hear the news. No one said anything until Sakura spoke up._

"_Where is he?" If anyone hated the Sannin, it would be her; next to Naruto. If it weren't for the man, her team wouldn't have split apart for so long; there wouldn't have been so much heartache and worrying. Naruto turned to look at her when she spoke._

"_He's in Sound again, regrouping those who were loyal to him," Naruto said as he pulled several reports and unbeknownst to them a mission form as well from a pile on his desk and handed them out to the ninja standing before him. They were Shikamaru, Sakura, Neji, who no longer had a genin team, and six other jounin that were older. _

_When everyone had a copy he started to brief them on the mission, "You will be in the standard teams of three. Shikamaru is captain; Sakura you will head one team with Yamanosuke and Sento. Neji, you will head the next team with Keiro and Minake (2). You two will be with Shikamaru," he said to the remaining two. _

"_You are to there for reconnaissance only. Do not engage anybody; I don't want to announce Konoha's presence in the north aside from the skirmishes with Cloud. It's on the mission slip. To the best of my knowledge, Orochimaru isn't aware that we're on to him yet. But he could merely be ignoring us for the time being," he finished. He looked at each of them, memorizing their faces and taking in their serious expressions. _

_It had become too common for him to send his own comrades and friends into dangerous missions recently. It was habit now to take a good look at each person he sent off to what could be their death. This was one aspect of his job that he had never thought about back when he was a kid._

_How did one protect their precious people and their village as the Hokage by sending them out into danger? The two sided blade of the word protection cut deeply and unexpectedly as it already had several times. _

_The first death of a ninja killed in action on a mission that he assigned personally had haunted him for weeks. He had been guilt ridden and it took several tries from Kakashi and his advisor's sharp words to have him take up duties as Hokage again._

_Finished with his ritual, he dismissed them, "Start off as soon as possible." They all nodded and bowed their assent before they left the office, leaving Naruto with a heavy heart. If things went well, they would be able to discern just what the hell Orochimaru was up to and where he was exactly. They wouldn't have to fight. _

It had been almost two weeks now that he sent the teams to Sound. Looking at the reports that Shikamaru had sent back, he had been deciphering the codes as he read so it was taking a little bit longer than usual to read them. But so far the gist was that they had found where Orochimaru was holing up permanently; at least for the time being. No insight to what he was planning however.

So far no trouble yet; he'd send a message after he finished reading to retrieve them. They had done their part well. Naruto wanted that man dead, for Jiraiya, for Tsunade because without him his teacher 

and one of the few women he truly loved would have had some form of peace in their earlier years and into their later ones.

But mostly he wanted that snake dead for good because he had taken away what could have been better years with Sasuke; had taken away Sasuke for years at least physically. The report in his hand crumbled under his grip and the crinkling brought him out of his thoughts.

Ever since that night at the bridge, he had seen Sasuke here and there during some days for mission briefings or reports only. They didn't speak to each other than the needed words to relay information. With his busy schedule there was no time to hang out during the day at all. One would say that since the blond tried so hard to get the raven haired man back that he'd be a little bit more friendly during the few times they saw each other.

No one saw them at night though underneath the moon and the stars. They made sure to keep their meetings secret. It was to quiet nights and soft words that Naruto looked forward to after work each day when Sasuke wasn't away on a mission that Naruto had assigned. Over the past few nights they had shared they had gotten even closer. There were the usual insults and banter along with laughs and smirks that had brought them closer together in the first place, but between those were quiet words of wonder and thoughtfulness. They reminisced a lot for a couple of barely legal adults.

He couldn't help but sigh with a silly little grin on his face. Two nights ago he had leaned against the other man and had hoped for no reaction, just acceptance for the touch that he was beginning to crave as much as he craved these nights of peace. To his surprise and inner pleasure not only had Sasuke not protested but he pulled Naruto down onto his lap.

He ran his fingers slightly through those blond tresses and again that little smile peaked out underneath the moon. Naruto could only stare and return the smile. Soon he closed his eyes and merely enjoyed lying in his warm lap. He would have fallen asleep there if Sasuke hadn't nudged him slightly.

"_Naruto, time to go to bed," he said softly. The blond stirred and mumbled incoherently in his semi-conscience state. Sasuke nudged him softly before running his finger over those mumbling lips. Blue eyes opened as those pink lips opened slightly in response. _

"_Let's go to bed," he suggested softly. Naruto could only nod, his mind in a state of numbness. Once more he felt the magic much like the first night. Afraid to break the spell he chose not to speak. Sasuke helped him up and from there they went to his apartment building. _

_There Naruto made his way to his bed. Shirtless and only in shorts, he plopped down onto his bed and shuffled under his blanket. He glanced back to find Sasuke standing in the door way merely staring at him. It looked like it was his move then. _

"_What are you standing around for? Get over here," he huffed out impatiently, "I do want to get some sleep you know." Sasuke smirked and sauntered over to the bed. Naruto's eyes were glued to the tantalizing swing of his hips. He gulped when the raven haired man pulled his shirt off; he gaped at the expanse of exposed pale flesh. Muscle rippled when those hips swung from one way to another. Taunt stomach abs strained and moved when the shirt finally came off. _

_Naruto gulped at the sight of low hanging pants and was glad he was already under the blanket. Sasuke's smirk turned into a chuckle when he lowered himself onto the bed only for Naruto to scoot away giving him as much room as possible._

_Needless to say Naruto had trouble falling asleep that night. When he did finally sleep, it was a night without nightmares and guilty dreams. _

Sasuke wasn't there when he had woken up the next morning. Still, this was more than he could have ever hoped for. He never thought that he'd be falling for his best friend, much less that his feelings would be reciprocated. Of course Sasuke hadn't outright said anything and neither had he, but didn't some wise old person say that actions speak louder than words?

So if he never said anything and Sasuke never said anything, it didn't matter right? And if this wasn't a permanent thing then words wouldn't have to be taken back. Sounded like a good plan. Everything regarding Sasuke was going fine; he wouldn't have to worry about it.

That didn't mean the thought wasn't always constantly on his mind though. The question of where they were going from here floated to the front of his mind all the time. Each time he stubbornly shoved it back down saying that he'd deal with it when they did officially become something first. Right now he had more pressing things to do, like finish deciphering these damn reports.

He stared un-comprehensively at a particular symbol and mentally swore at Shikamaru at coding it so. With the Nara man, he had told him to create a code that no one would know beside him; then modify it so that only he and Naruto could read it.

It was working, just not very efficiently as Naruto struggled at certain parts such as now to read it. It didn't help that Sasuke was still weaving in and out of his thoughts. He was concentrating so hard on the report and trying to remember what that symbol meant that when his advisor came into the room followed by Kakashi, Sasuke and the team that they were on, it took him several blinks before he realized his advisor was saying something to him.

"What? Sorry, I wasn't listening," he apologized hastily as he sat up straighter and focused his attention on the older man. Said old man snorted and stated derisively, "Of course you weren't." Everyone ignored the brief exchange, completely entering the room and the door was closed when his advisor began again.

"I'm just here to remind you that Hyuuga Hiashi requested a personal meeting with you later in the evening, and to go over with you the situation with Cloud," he said in his all-business tone. Naruto nodded, he had forgotten that Hinata's dad wanted to talk to him about something. What the older man wanted to talk to him he didn't know. His advisor probably knew and would most likely tell him later too. So he promptly shoved that to the back of his mind so he could listen to the leading team's report.

It had to be significant if they were back in person but nothing disastrous; they'd have just sent a message for that, or at least he hoped.

"Go ahead, Daiki," Naruto prompted and the man he addressed stepped forward from the rest and bowed briefly before he began his report.

"Hokage-sama, during our patrol in the northeast quadrant of Fire Country we encounter several teams of Cloud shinobi. They were nothing more than chuunin on scouting missions, or at least that's what it appeared to be. As per your order, we engaged them to find out what their purpose was.

"It turns out unlike the previous scouts from before these had merely been sent out for general reasons. When questioned they knew nothing about why they were in Fire Country. Other teams happened upon similar situations. However, Uchiha recognized a particular Cloud ninja as being a former Sound nin. That's when things got even more suspicious."

At the mention of Sasuke Naruto glanced briefly at him only to find him looking back with his expressionless face. His mind churned; was this man simply a deserter of Sound? Or was Cloud harboring Sound ninja, so that Sound appeared weaker than they actually were? That thought led to another unpleasant one; Cloud was assisting Sound as allies then if that was the case.

"How so?" he asked. What else did they find out about these activities? He rubbed his chin, a habit that he had started to do unconsciously when he was thinking.

"When Uchiha recognized him, the ninja attempted to flee. When that failed, he took his own life. The other members with him were interrogated about him. They said he had joined up a year ago; he was different as his techniques clearly weren't those of Cloud.

"Hokage-sama, if I may suggest, there appears to be more to Cloud's ventures than previously thought," Daiki finished. Naruto nodded his agreement. This was by no means anything concrete but to waste time trying to tie Cloud and Sound together was pointless. He knew what he was going to do next.

"The sentiment has already been brought up. Please have each one of you turn in a separate report. I want those in first thing in the morning. For now, rest up as I'll be sending you back to patrol within the week. Please send orders to switch out the current teams with fresh ones. Every two weeks I want a different team to replace the ones on patrol. You will decide on that," the Hokage ordered. The man bowed and gave a short affirmative.

"You are all dismissed. Kakashi, Sasuke, stay behind." His tone was grim as he made up his mind. He didn't need to tell his advisor to stay as well. The man had been standing behind him the entire time. As for the ninjas who had just left for a week of rest before being sent out again, being off duty for that much time was rather long but he was being lenient for now. Once Cloud and Sound made their move, two weeks on patrol would seem like a week's respite.

"It's as we thought, Fumio," Naruto began. Kakashi spoke up instead of his advisor though.

"What are you thinking Naruto?" he never called Naruto Hokage unless in a formal situation; Fumio sniffed mentally at the casualness, even being his former teacher the man should at least add some form of honorific to his name. That was beside the case though as the old man turned to face the Hokage for his answer.

Everyone stared at him and he waited a moment to finalize his thoughts before he spoke. His voice was of confidence and determination; two things that people had come to associate with him over the years. If anyone could be depended on to have these two qualities in a seemingly unlimited supply, it was their Hokage.

"Orochimaru either knows that we know he's still alive, or he's just being cautious. My opinion is that he's hiding his forces, making him appear weaker than he actually is. If that's the case, his shinobi are hiding among other villages just waiting for his order. Whether or not Cloud is in league with him makes a difference.

"I'll send Gaara a message to see if he's accepted any recent ninja into his ranks that were not originally Sand ninja. If Cloud is in league with Orochimaru then these scouts of Cloud take on a whole new meaning," he steepled his fingers underneath his chin as he leaned onto his desk. His eyes were focused in a faraway place as he spoke his mind to those he trusted the most.

"Since they began, they've been nothing serious, just enough to let us know that they are there; that they could cause something if they wanted to," Fumio added on. Kakashi stepped into the observation with his own thoughts, "They're distracting."

Nothing much was needed to say about that. They were distracting. Naruto had four teams patrolling at the moment not including Daiki's team. Those were twelve skilled ninja that he could use to defend the village if there was a surprise attack. Not to mention the ones that were out on regular paid missions from clients and the ones he had sent out with Shikamaru.

When it came down to it, Konoha was stretched at the moment. It wasn't a problem as long as nothing happened. But Orochimaru was alive and that itself was grounds for concern. His only option was to do what no other Hokage had done before, at least to anyone's knowledge.

He was going to negate the threat to Konoha before it could happen. Screw politics this time, Orochimaru was going down and he was going to stay down.

"That's exactly it," Naruto agreed with Kakashi on that point, "If Cloud is in league with Orochimaru, then they're serving their purpose well. They're meant to distract us from something that he's planning." Fumio narrowed his eyes as he thought about what Naruto had said.

"What do you think he's planning?" he asked the blond. Naruto didn't hesitate to answer.

"I don't know and I don't care," he replied sharply. Kakashi raised his one visible brow at the young Hokage's confidence and deceiving lack of care. Fumio looked like he might say something to that but Sasuke cut him off. The Uchiha hadn't spoken once since he walked into the room. Naruto never forgot that he was there though.

"What are you planning, Naruto?" he asked, curious and slightly proud to see for himself that the blond really had come a long way from the loud-mouthed brat to a respectable Hokage.

"I'm going to get rid of Orochimaru once and for all; _before_ he does goes through with whatever nefarious plans that he might have." The Third's mistake was to let Orochimaru go unchecked over the years, giving him time to plan and gather forces and allies. He had Jiraiya keeping tabs on him but never once did he tell Jiraiya to do anything about it.

"Shikamaru and others are still observing the snake. I was going to tell them to come back but with these new findings they'll stay there. I want you Sasuke, to head to Sound Country along with Kakashi. I will send some more ninja there as well.

"We're going to crush Sound and assassinate Orochimaru. There's no point in taking him alive; he's an S-ranked missing nin who killed the Third and attacked Konoha. There will be no trial for him," Naruto's voice rang out with steel.

**A/N** OMG! I'm seeing plot holes left and right! I hope you guys don't notice them and if you do, sorry, I'm so scatter-brained that I start on one path and turn around and forget that I wrote it. Anyway, for those of you who are wondering about Madara, well, I was wondering about him too, lol. Don't worry, I forgot about him but now that I've remembered him, he's still alive and for that matter so is team Hebi. I'm pulling away from canon here as there is no team Hawk cuz Sasuke doesn't team up with Madara; he just did what he said he did in chapter 15.

And there's not much action here in this chapter, just way too much talking. The interactions between Sasuke and Naruto will no longer be in flashbacks, I just didn't want to write out the entire thing. And drama up ahead for those two; this perfection they seem to have now isn't going to last for too long. Wow, my notes are getting longer and longer (I only try to write what I think needs to be explained)

(1) Sorry, I've been referring to Cloud ninja as Lightening. Technically it's Lightening country and the village is Cloud. I'll refer to them as Cloud from now on just because it's easier to type cuz I'm lazy.

(2) Sorry again, I just pulled these names out of my butt (totally made them up) cuz I'm lazy and didn't want to put any thought in them. I can't stand leaving people nameless, but they're just fodder and they don't matter. I'm not using the others because frankly, it annoys me when everyone is placed on a mission together no matter the rank. I mean, come on, there's more ninja in Konoha than the original genin teams; plus they don't all work very well together.


	18. Chapter 18

As It Is Now

Chapter 17

I don't own Naruto.

I'm so sorry, my muse abandoned me! It should be back though…soon, hopefully. If not I'll drag the darn thing back! I haven't been in the writing mood lately and this chapter is out only cuz I feel bad since I told a reader that I'd have it out last weekend probably.

Anyway, enjoy!

"We're going to crush Sound and assassinate Orochimaru. There's no point in taking him alive; he's an S-ranked missing nin who killed the Third and attacked Konoha. There will be no trial for him," Naruto's voice rang out with steel.

The others in the room took in his serious eyes and Fumio couldn't help but nod. His attitude was impossible to ignore and it was even harder to remain apathetic in the face of his determination. Even the mighty Uchiha Sasuke hadn't been able to withstand it forever.

Before the old man could ask what details the Hokage had for the mission he spoke again, "Kakashi, Sasuke, please leave." Surprise showed itself on Sasuke's face while Kakashi hid his behind a tilt of the head.

"I'll send for you again later when I've picked out the others. That way I'll only have to go over things once," he finished. Sasuke didn't allow for the slight annoyance to tinge his face or his voice as he vocalized his objection to leaving.

"It would make more sense to have me here; I know Orochimaru better than anyone here." Naruto held his eyes for a second before he conceded to that point.

"I know. I'm not going to start planning just yet. There's a few things I need to decide on first though," he answered offhandedly, not wanting to offend his best friend. Seemingly satisfied about the answer the Uchiha nodded and the two Sharingan users left the office.

The door closed and Fumio spoke up, "What did you need to decide that couldn't wait until after this? As long as I've known you, I thought you couldn't wait to see Orochimaru dead." Naruto braced his hands behind his head and kicked back his chair to plop his feet onto his desk. The older man's mouth twitched into a slight frown but he said nothing.

"Well, I already have a plan. It just needs some fine tuning that the others will provide. And I already have an idea of who I want to go with them," Naruto said conversationally. Fumio's irritation, which had been dormant for the past week snaked its way out again at the blonde's uncaring attitude.

"Just what are you thinking, Hokage-sama?" he bit out. Naruto raised a brow and grinned. The old man never called him Hokage when they were alone unless he was irritated. He didn't really have a reason to annoy the old man; he just kind of missed the insults that they threw back and forth sometimes.

You'd think he liked being insulted or something considering things weren't right if Sasuke didn't insult him with almost every other word. His smile disappeared and his face grew serious. The chair settled back to all four legs when he took his feet off the desk.

"I'm going to ask a favor of you, Fumio," he said quietly. He kept his gaze on the old man; his eyes never straying from wary brown ones. The old man searched those blue orbs for any clue that would let him figure out what the favor was before he agreed. He had a bad feeling that he wasn't going to like whatever it was that his Hokage was about to ask.

"I need you to cover for me," was all he said but the seriousness of his tone and the fact that earlier they were talking about assassinating the last Sannin, Fumio knew exactly what Naruto meant. A scowl formed on his face and he drew in a breath to start his protest.

"Before you say no, let me explain a bit. I won't take no for an answer. I'll even make it an order for the safety of the village," he threatened slightly, "But I'd like to keep it as a favor between just friends, you know? I know I'm not the easiest person to put up with but I thought that we were getting along fine in the past couple of months.

"You know how much I want him dead. And I'm afraid that I can't let anyone else do it. I need to make sure that he dies for sure this time. For the Third, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Sasuke, and everyone else that he's ruined." He pleaded with the old man with his eyes, mustering all the feelings that he could into his blue eyes. It wasn't that hard as he wasn't lying; he felt a lot.

"What are you planning on doing?" Fumio asked, not about to give in just yet. Naruto let out a breath and started talking again.

"I won't head out with them. Once the teams are far enough away, I'll catch up. I'll be back before you know it!" he added to bolster Fumio's confidence in him.

"What if you don't make it back?" he asked the dreaded question. The shine in Naruto's eyes faded a bit but he pushed on, "I will make it back, that's a promise. But on the slight chance that anything happens to me…Shikamaru will take over temporarily until someone can be found to take my place." The last part he spoke quietly.

He had already spoken to Shikamaru about such a possibility. This had been a while ago in fact. Over the years the man had become just as close to him as Kakashi was. He knew his former teacher would never accept the title of Hokage, not even a temporary one. It had taken a long time and lot of pestering before Shikamaru had agreed.

"Fine, Hokage-sama," Fumio relented but his answer told both of them that he accepted not as a friend, but as a ninja under his Hokage's orders. Naruto let out his breath once more. It wasn't the way he wanted Fumio to accept but he'd take it however he could.

"Good, thank you Fumio. When I leave depends on when they reach him," he said, answering the unspoken question of his departure. He knew the old man would cover for him well. Tsunade's departure from the village had led to her death and the lost of Konoha's Hokage. No one would let him leave the village on such a mission.

The old man didn't respond to that and Naruto continued, "That's all I wanted to discuss. Please send for Gai, Shino, Kiba and Chouji. With Kakashi and Sasuke as well as the three teams already in Sound, there will be a total of fifteen. I want to see everyone in one hour."

Fumio nodded and left to send out the message. Naruto leaned back in his chair once again. If their briefing took a few hours then that should still give him time to meet with Hiashi. He wondered what that prick wanted. The man was rather stuck up but after spending time with Neji, the older Hyuuga hadn't been so openly disdainful anymore.

He still had a long ways to go though before he could be called friendly.

Just then his stomach growled loudly. He tightened his oblique muscles to quiet the grumpy organ. Naruto stood up and grinned; he hadn't eaten anything yet and the thought of ramen always made him happy. Having an hour to kill before everyone assembled for the briefing, he made his way down the tower and out to his favorite ramen stand.

To his mild surprise and extreme delight he found Sasuke sitting at the end of the stand staring moodily into his unfinished bowl. He didn't know if the look was already there or if it had only appeared when Sasuke noticed him. Unfazed he approached the stand and gave a hearty greeting to the old man. Ayame wasn't in today as business was slow. He must have missed the lunch rush.

Good thing, he was starving and he hated it when the old man had to divide his attention between customers and him. It was an extra wait for his ramen that just drove him slightly insane.

"Hi Sasuke!" he turned his attention to the raven haired man who was still ignoring him.

"What's on your mind? You look like there's a cloud raining over you. I can almost see it," he squinted at the air above Sasuke's head. Annoyed but slightly amused at the stupidity of the statement Sasuke turned and glared at the blond.

"Idiot. There's no rain cloud over my head," he grumbled.

"Is too! Look," he poked at the air above the black spikes and a loud rumble caused Sasuke to glance up briefly in shock as if there actually were clouds over his head. He snapped his head back down and smacked away the offending hand.

"That's your stomach, idiot," annoyed that the thought of thunder had actually occurred to him. The idiot was getting to him. Naruto tilted his head back and let out a genuine laugh. The look of slight embarrassment on his friends face was priceless!

Sasuke thought briefly of punching his lights out for making fun of him but the thought that he hadn't heard Naruto laugh like that in a long time stopped him. Even if it was at his own expense, it was nice hearing the idiot laugh for fun.

Fun; just a feeling that he had once known when he was still a child. He didn't know the concept of fun anymore. He waited until the blonde's laughter finally died down before he asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"Isn't it obvious, Sasuke?" he answered still trying to get the smile off his face, "I'm hungry! And it'll be another hour before everyone's going to meet up in the office." Naruto immediately whipped his head away from Sasuke who could only stare as the old man approached with Naruto's first bowl of ramen.

His gaze never left the bowl even when he gave his thanks. The chopsticks didn't stand a chance as they were separated and like a drowning man starved for air, Naruto inhaled his ramen.

Every time he caught Naruto eating here it never ceased to amaze him how the idiot managed to down the bowl in three…two…one.

"Done!" he exclaimed happily, like he had just finished a marathon. The blond gestured frantically for another bowl of miso pork ramen. Maybe it was a marathon, and Sasuke just couldn't figure out how many legs to it there were. As Sasuke mused, Naruto downed bowl after bowl.

"So, Sa'ke, hos' ih go'in?" he slurped and soup went flying as he tried to communicate. Sasuke twitched and grimaced when several drops landed on his face.

"Wait until you're done, idiot. You're disgusting," he muttered as he wiped the offending wetness off his face.

"Sor-ack!" He started coughing as the inevitable happened. After several unhelpful hard slaps on the back by Sasuke the blond finally stopped coughing.

"You shouldn't talk and breathe at the same time. It's obviously too complex for you," he pointed out with a tinge of superiority. He couldn't pass up any chance to tease the blond.

"What?!" he started hacking again and tried to breathe through a burning throat, "I can-" he coughed and wheezed, "Damn you!" was the hoarse reply he gave. To continue talking like this would only further prove that bastard's statement.

When he no longer felt the need to cough up a lung, he wiped his mouth and muttered under his breath but loud enough for Sasuke to hear, "See if I ever apologize again if that's what I get."

Sasuke just smirked. Naruto turned his head sharply back to his bowl pretending to ignore the other man only to find it almost empty. No longer hungry he pulled out enough money to cover the five bowls he ate and a little extra for tip.

"Well?" he turned his attention back to Sasuke who was looking at him expectantly, or as expectantly as Sasuke could; which was nothing more than a blank, direct gaze with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Well what?" the Uchiha answered. Somehow when he asked the same question it came off as dumb but when Sasuke said it, it sounded intelligent. He'd think about that later.

"Well, you're sitting here, and the only time you're ever here is if you planned on seeing me," he pointed out.

"What do you do? Spy on me?" Sasuke retorted with amusement.

"No! I- It's just, well, old man here tells me you're only here whenever I am!" he sputtered out. His face flamed when Sasuke gave him a knowing look.

"Bastard! What do you want?" he huffed out in embarrassment that Sasuke thought he was following him around.

"Who's coming?" he asked bluntly. Straight to the point as always. Sometimes he didn't know who was more blunt, him or Sasuke.

"Kiba, Shino, Gai and Chouji," he answered. There was no point in waiting, he'd find out in a little bit anyway.

The raven haired man seemed to ponder this for a moment before he appeared appeased. He reminded the blond, "Hour's almost up." He stood up abruptly and started for the tower, not bothering to wait for Naruto at all.

"No it's not! Hey wait up! Damn it bastard!" Naruto jumped up and waved briefly to the old man before he took off after the departing Sasuke. There was just something about chasing after his retreating back that made his heart pound and his palms itch.

"Sasuke!" he shouted and sped up, determined to catch up.

**A/N **Yeah, no action yet but Naruto's been so serious lately that I thought a simple ramen scene where he's not the young Hokage but simply Naruto would lighten things up a bit. Plus, if you know what foreshadowing is, I've put it to use in the last paragraph. Next chapter should cover the majority of the fight with the creepy Sannin. Thanks for reading!


	19. Chapter 19

As It Is Now

Chapter 18

I don't own Naruto.

Soooo sorry readers. I haven't died, although I did break crush/fracture two of my finger tips at work…poor fingers (I lost my fingernails!! Only now they're starting to grow back!) Anyway, it's rather nasty looking, so I'll stop. Please let me know what you think, cuz I think this chapter could have been so much better but I don't know how to improve on it. Actually, that's the other reason why it took so long to get out, I was having confidence issues about it. Well, onto to the story.

* * *

His heart pounded as he waited.

The past two days had been frantic and stressful since he sent the teams out for the mission. It felt like it had only been moments when he wished them luck before they left. The earlier moments of eternal time were already forgotten as he could still taste Sasuke on his tongue, feel him on his lips.

_He finally caught up to Sasuke just as the other climbed through the window into his office._

_Panting he demanded, "What the hell Sasuke! There's still time! If you didn't want to spend it with me then why didn't you just say so?" _

"_Idiot," he rolled his eyes and walked over to the blond._

"_It's private here," he explained. Naruto only blinked, not comprehending why he'd bring that up._

"_Of course I know it's private-" he shut his mouth as he actually looked at Sasuke, at his eyes. Onyx eyes swallowed all the light that came into it making them appear even darker, if that was possible. There was something in his eyes. _

_Hunger, his mind eagerly supplied._

_He found himself swallowing as Sasuke kept coming closer. His heart raced and pounded out a frantic beat. It was so loud in his ears that he couldn't hear anything else. Could Sasuke hear it? What if someone outside could hear it?_

"_Idiot, stop thinking so much," Sasuke ordered before he stepped up to the blond and pressed his lips gently against those quivering ones. He personally wanted to shove Naruto against that desk of his but the silent idiot would probably punch him and then bolt._

_Naruto stood still at first because he was unsure of what to do. It seemed he took too long to decide as Sasuke retreated and pulled away._

"_Ah! Wait!" Scared that he had just blown his chance he grabbed Sasuke's front lapels and yanked him back. Instead of lips on lips his hasty attempt caused his tilted-up chin to smack Sasuke on the chin as his head had been thrown back by the force of the pull. _

"_Oww, idiot," Sasuke complained. Before he could correct the blond Naruto tried again, this time smashing his lips painfully into the Uchiha's._

_Annoyed at his clumsy and frantic attempts Sasuke grabbed his shoulders and pushed the blond away but kept a grip on him._

"_Naruto," he spoke sharply and waited until the blond looked at him instead of anywhere else._

"_Slow down," he said calmly and in control this time he pulled the blond back as he himself met him halfway._

_Chapped lips pressed hesitantly against dry ones as both grips tightened and they stepped into each other to get more comfortable._

_Sasuke opened his mouth, his tongue swiping curiously at Naruto's bottom lip. A small sound escaped his throat as he parted his lips obligingly for the other's tongue to push in._

_He swirled his tongue, exploring the taste and feel of the other's mouth. There was the distinct taste of ramen, yet there was another flavor that was simply Naruto. His hands shifted from the blonde's shoulders to wrap around his neck, one hand gripping the hair at the nape._

_Not to be outdone, Naruto slid his hands over the other's covered body. He did what he had secretly been dreaming about all these days; he slid his hands down Sasuke's waist and they continued to roam and explore just as his tongue was now doing._

_Sasuke couldn't tell who was moaning, but he was pretty sure he wasn't the one whimpering._

_Naruto was beyond hearing; as soon as he started caressing Sasuke's tongue with his own, his world had burst into all the flavors of the man in his arms. A craving hit him and all the pent-up needs crashed into him like Sakura's fist._

_His hands tightened and he pulled Sasuke closer, needing to feel all of him. He stepped forward to try to get closer as he became more aggressive with his mouth._

_Vaguely Sasuke felt his back hit something. The little warning bell started to chime but he ruthlessly shot it down as he parted his legs for Naruto to slide a leg between them. The blond slid down low and pushed back up again, rubbing himself on Sasuke._

_Breathless groans passed out of both men's mouths as Sasuke tugged the blonde's shirt out of his pants; quick fingers eagerly spreading along the expanse of a tan waist._

_Naruto dominated his mouth and instinct made him trail down that mouth to a pale neck. He licked and sucked at the juncture where he could see, smell the blood pumping rapidly through there. _

_A louder, low moan escaped his lips. This time when the warning bell went off in his head he couldn't ignore it._

"_Naruto," he moaned, his hands, caressing before now tried to push the blond away from him. He couldn't seem to make them work properly though as they continued to mead and feel the muscle on the other's back._

_Naruto let out a guttural moan but made no move to stop._

"_Naruto," he tried again, this time his voice was more solid and stern. His hands finally decided to obey him and they grabbed Naruto's hair at the back of his head and pulled. His other hand came to the front between them and pushed the blonde's devilish mouth away from him._

_Blue eyes blinked a few times as his situational awareness came back to him. They were both panting and he had Sasuke pressed up against the wall._

_Realization kicked him in the head and he stumbled back, pulling Sasuke away from the wall with him. Blue eyes stared at onyx ones and then at the clock before back at each other. Crap! They both started straightening up their clothes and attempted to fix their facial expressions._

_Naruto's lips were swollen, but even more so was Sasuke's which Naruto had spent some time suckling and nipping at._

_Sasuke reached out and smoothed down the back of Naruto's hair where he had pulled. There was knock on the door and with an undignified squeak Naruto dashed behind his desk and almost fell over trying to get into his chair._

"_C-Come-" his voice cracked and gave out. He coughed before trying again._

"_Come in!" he said a little too loudly. Sasuke had moved to the side and leaned once more on the wall like he had been doing that all along. He looked at the flustered blond who shot him a look that clearly said it wasn't over._

_Sasuke smirked and closed his eyes, forming his face into the usual emotionless one. The door opened and the others walked in._

_It had been a close call. The others had walked in, upon seeing the flustered blond and a silent Uchiha they had merely passed it off as an argument between the two._

_Kakashi looked at Naruto for a moment before studying Sasuke. He raised an eyebrow and Naruto could've sworn the man could see right through them._

_He had shaken it off. He greeted everyone and the mission briefing began. Once more the silly Naruto vanished and they listened to their Hokage as he explained what was going to happen._

And now here he was. Just moments before he had been in Konoha anxiously waiting to be teleported to Sound. A secret that he had kept to himself besides Jiraiya, he had figured out his father's Hiraishin technique after several long months of experimenting.

He had several ANBU tail the teams and when they reached Sound, a certain ANBU had been directed to activate one of the paper seals.

He had yet to figure out how his father had applied the seal to the kunai so he was still using paper seals. But it worked, for now at least. He had never used this outside from training; had only mentioned his curiosity to Jiraiya shortly before the old pervert parted ways with him to go to the village hidden in the Rain.

He was only here to make sure Orochimaru died and no one else. If he had to though, he'd kill the snake bastard himself, but the one with the planned killing blow was Kakashi.

The four he had suggested; Kiba, Chouji, Gai and Shino, were the meat tanks, meant to plough through the first and largest wave of defense. Sakura's and Neji's teams along with Sasuke and Kakashi were to continue onward as soon as they could.

The second resistance would be left for Sakura's and Neji's teams while the two Sharingan users kept going. Shikamaru and his two teammates would follow through along with the first four as backup. Each breaking of a group was signaled by explosions.

Before entering the hideout, Naruto had been placing seals around the hideout in case he needed to leave the hideout quickly. He wasn't taking any chances. He had finished placing the last one in place only to find that he couldn't stand still.

The first explosion had already gone off; he was waiting for the second one which would mean that Sasuke and Kakashi had gotten through. Time had slowed to an agonizing crawl as he waited. He tried to breathe and control his exhale, trying for patience. He needed to wait until the second explosion before he could even think of moving.

He resisted the urge to activate the seal that he had placed in the mission scroll which was now in Kakashi's side pouch. The man had taken a look at the mission scroll but had made no move to discard it. If he had seen the seal he hadn't said or done anything more than look at Naruto before they left. The blond paced back and forth tightly, inching toward the hideout.

Just when he thought he couldn't wait anymore the second explosion went off. He had almost missed it. The hideout must have been deeper than he thought; there was just a mild tremble under his feet. The sounds of the four fighting almost covered it up.

No more time to think he started counting to ten only to make it four before he muttered, "Ah screw it!" and off like a blond missile he made his way to the hideout.

As soon as he made his move the ANBU surrounding him retreated, leaving only two for messaging. The others were headed back for Konoha for defensive purposes. He wasn't going to leave Konoha defenseless, especially when he wasn't there.

During the briefing Shino had brought up the suspicion that Orochimaru might be anticipating an attack and this would be a perfect opportunity to attack while their forces were divided. Naruto had conceded to that point and told them not to worry. He would bring back half of the ninja in the north and he himself would be here, for the most part. He didn't mention that last part out loud.

Before leaving he'd given a paper seal to Fumio, telling him to activate it if anything happened. It was the best he could do for defense while taking the offense as well.

The order had been to kill Orochimaru by any means necessary. He spared the bodies brief glances. Some were dead, but most were still alive. That would be decided later when the Sannin was dead. His ninja would either be given trail, another chance to change allegiance or simply executed. The last option was most likely going to happen since it wouldn't give Orochimaru another chance at life if he had managed to latch onto some other victim.

He focused back on finding Sasuke and Kakashi. Instinct drove him and relentlessly he kept moving. He couldn't feel any significant chakra spikes. He wondered briefly if there was something wrong. What if the intelligence reports had been wrong and Orochimaru had been waiting for a moment like this to strike?

He shook his head, he couldn't doubt himself. All he could do was handle things as they are now.

There! He turned left and larger doors that were in shambles laid before him. There wasn't any movement from the room that he could tell but he heard voices. Cautiously he stepped through to find Kakashi's back to him. Before him was a pathetic sight; Orochimaru was sprawled on the floor weak and paler than usual. He was breathing hard; it wouldn't take a medic nin to know that there was something wrong, more wrong than just exhaustion.

His eyes were tinged red (1); his arms flopped awkwardly at his sides like he had no bones. When Naruto stepped into the room those insane eyes rolled onto him and that sinister laugh, a shadow of what it had been echoed out of him.

"Naruutooo," he hissed out, "What a surprise, all of Konoha's greatest ninja are in here. I'm honored." He smirked and Naruto fought to suppress the shudder that wanted to shake through him. Kakashi didn't turn to acknowledge him. A part of him probably knew Naruto wouldn't stay in Konoha even if he hadn't activated the seal in his pouch. If anything he was surprised the blond had managed to wait this long to show up.

The other pair of eyes burned at him but a quick glance showed Sasuke merely staring at him impassively before he too turned his attention back to the snake. He ignored the Uchiha and looked back to Kakashi. He would deal with Sasuke's anger later.

"Kakashi," he urged. This was pathetic; they had come over prepared and ready to fight only to find that Orochimaru really had been weakened. His eyes kept shifting slightly from red to gold. It seemed Kabuto's body wasn't letting him take over quite so easily. True to his word, the ex-Leaf nin was treating this as a challenge and trying to keep control of Orochimaru.

This was merely a fraction of what Orochimaru used to be.

Kakashi stepped forward as he prepared his chidori. As the birds cried, Orochimaru snickered mockingly, "What? I don't get any last words or requests?"

"No," Kakashi stated curtly before he lunged and Orochimaru jerked as a snake struck out at Kakashi. Expecting at least something, the white haired man dodged the snake which was taken out by Sasuke's chokuto.

The cry of a thousand birds died down and Kakashi pulled his hand out of the Sannin's chest. He stepped back slightly only to find that the wound was trying to close; the Sannin was gasping and heaving.

It seemed Kabuto was still trying to fight 'til the end after all. Stupid man, Naruto thought before Sasuke stepped forward and with a vicious swipe, decapitated the sniveling man. Heal that, the blond finished in his head. With a fire jutsu, the body was burned; there was no need to keep it. Whatever secrets he had gained would die with him.

Silence followed the Sannin's death. Naruto stared at the charred floor and body for another moment before he looked at Kakashi's bloody arm.

"Get that looked at by Sakura. Make sure he didn't try anything," he ordered quietly. There was an ominous pressure coming from the part of the room that Sasuke was standing in; the part of the room that he was currently avoiding.

"You," Sasuke began quietly in a dangerous, low tone. Naruto didn't dare look at him. He knew Sasuke had activated his Sharingan, he could feel the glare on the side of his face.

"Look. At. Me," he growled out. Naruto didn't want to look, but he didn't dare not look either. He chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. Slowly he inched his face toward Sasuke, making sure his eyes were the last thing that turned.

"Haha, surprise?" he spouted lamely as he looked at some point beyond Sasuke's head.

"Naruto," this time the urge to bolt made him tense up, ready to run as Sasuke's tomoes started to swirl. Before he could flee though, the familiar sensation of the Hiraishin swept through him and all he had time for was a glance at a startled Uchiha before he was in his office again.

**A/N** How was that? So what was so important that Fumio brought Naruto back just in the nick of time to be saved from obvious pain and torture? Well, you'll find out in the next chapter. Sorry Orochimaru was so lame; I'm just tired of the bad guys being invincible and hard to kill and taking chapters trying to kill them only for them to get away and do it all over again (which is why I don't like Batman or Superman, they never kill the Joker or Lex Luther). But I needed a protagonist (or is it antagonist?) and Orochimaru has played his part.

(1) Back during the chuunin exams when Team seven was with Kabuto and they were attacked by those mist ninja, Kabuto's eyes were red for a moment. I'm just pulling this off as a secret technique that he had that's still fighting Orochimaru's take over. Kishimoto never mentions it again.


	20. Chapter 20

As It Is Now

Chapter 19

I don't own Naruto. Not now, not ever.

My apologies for the long wait but I only recently felt inspired enough to crank this one out. Needless to say I rewrote this chapter completely! Instead of putting off the conflict with Cloud like I had first done, I decided to get to it.

That next chapter will be long and maybe confusing so don't expect it out soon as I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen yet. Besides I've been hit with another plot bunny. My time travel fic plot bunny attacked me and I cranked out five chapters for _Wrong Again_. First chapter should be posted soon and I'm quite excited about it.

Legendary should have another chapter out in a little bit. Anyway, excuse the shameless story promoting. Onto the story.

Enjoy!

* * *

The room was moving backwards. That was the only explanation he could find when he took a step toward his chair to sit only to land on the arm rest painfully. Determined not to cry, Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists to stave off the pained cry.

His ass hurt. And Sasuke had nothing to do with it. _Yet,_ his mind so kindly supplied while he sputtered incoherently.

"Are you done yet?" Fumio snapped, quite irritated that this idiotic moron was their Hokage. Not to mention there was a pressing issue regarding the village hidden in the Clouds and the blond was muttering to himself like a deranged child. The village wasn't under attack yet, but two of their squads that were scouting the north had been ambushed. The other had made it back to inform that Cloud nins were heading toward here.

"Ugnnh…Yeah, I think so," he rasped out. The use of the technique was disorienting; he knew when he was going to use it, but to have it done unexpectedly made him dizzy. He stayed standing, there was no use sitting down now. He took a breath and with the long exhale, he composed himself.

"Alright, Fumio, as glad as I am to escape my fate, what's going on?" he asked the scowling man. Fumio didn't even want to know the story behind that statement. He huffed irritably before he composed himself as well and began talking.

"Read this," he pulled a small scroll out of his sleeve pocket and handed it to Naruto explaining even as Naruto began reading.

"Karasu just reported in a few minutes ago. I decided that it would be best to inform you right away since I didn't know when you would get back," he paused to allow the blond to read the report. He 

watched the younger man closely, trying to see a reaction that would give him an idea of what the man was going to do.

The only reaction that Naruto gave was a frown as he read. The more he read, the more he frowned. This report didn't bode well at all. He didn't bother to reread it; he didn't have to. It was obvious that Cloud was moving in for an attack.

"What's the status on those squads that were ambushed?" he asked.

"They should be here later today depending on the circumstances. But that would mean Cloud would be right behind them," Fumio answered gravely.

That left Naruto to thinking. Of course what Fumio said was correct. It had taken him less time than he had thought to neutralize Orochimaru. That meant Cloud must have known something which led to the fact that there must have been someone spying on them. But who?

The only ones who knew about Orochimaru were the ones on the mission beside Fumio. His advisor couldn't possible a spy. The man was a pompous stuck up most of the time but he wouldn't betray Konoha like that.

Then maybe Cloud simply planned this from the start. Had they been using the snake Sannin as distraction all along? That would explain the Sound nin that Sasuke had come across. Speaking of Sasuke, he along with his most capable ninjas were currently in Sound.

Naruto's face settled. He had decided then what to do. If there was a threat to Konoha, he'd just stomp it down along with any others until people got it through their heads that no one messed with Konoha. He'd keep with the tactic that he'd been using this entire time and use it against Cloud.

They had expected him to rush off and confront Orochimaru; he did that. They probably hadn't counted on him being able to use the Hiraishin though to get back so soon. He'd simply take out part of the attack forces before they reached Konoha.

"What do you have in mind?" Fumio was almost afraid to ask. The blond had a habit of taking things into his own hands. He had his hands full trying to calm down the older members of the council when Naruto went and did something unorthodox like chasing after the Uchiha himself. Who knew what he'd have to deal with if they found out that he had left the village. Multiple times already. Fumio would be facing more than an early retirement.

He relayed his reasoning to the older man who only gave him a questioning look.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Naruto grinned at the question.

Fumio narrowed his eyes at the smiling blond. He didn't get a chance to ask what exactly the younger man was up to as Naruto whipped around and walked to one of the windows, pain in the ass forgotten.

"Call back all shinobi, even those who are already on a mission…unless it's a vital mission then they can finish up quickly; those that return, they'll be staying in the village. We prepare for war with Cloud."

Fumio paled slightly at that bold statement. War was a nasty business filled with many intricate and false alliances that made every move dangerous. Not to mention he didn't think Naruto understood the full implications of his words.

"I will inform Shikamaru and the others. They will be the ones to cut down Cloud's forces," he finally turned back to Fumio, "Any questions?" The older man regarded him silently before he asked, "Do you realize what you're saying? You must at least consult with the council-"

He was cut off by a raise of Naruto's hand; a gesture that was effective although Fumio had never seen it done before by the blond. Looking at his eyes, he could see clearly why the villages' shinobi trusted him and acknowledged him as their Hokage. Those blue eyes burned with the will of fire that made their nation so strong.

"I know the laws. In time of war the Hokage can overrule the council by temporary disbandment making for swifter commands," he spoke confidently. This knowledge had been gained from Tsunade's brief tutoring sessions before she left. She had done her best to ensure him some skill in the cut throat world of politics. He made his way back to his chair and since the room had stopped moving a long time ago, he tried for his chair again.

The blond leaned his elbows onto his desk and rubbed his chin. His eyes were dark as he watched Fumio try to form a protest against his decision.

"This is war, Fumio," he said quietly when it seemed the man was having problems with his words, "I've never experienced war, I know, but my father has and so have you and the generation before this one.

"I can see why the Third, Danzou and Homura chose as they did; to wipe out the opposition before too many could suffer," he finished grimly. Fumio didn't question what he was talking about.

"I don't want this generation to ever experience war. I'm going to send those that are still in Sound to intercept the invading forces. Another wave will meet the rest of the intruders. By then they'll surrender or be destroyed. I don't want this dragging out and involving innocent lives."

Naruto wasn't going to let the fighting reach Konoha, not if he could help it.

"What about alliances?" Fumio finally asked, already resigned to the blonde's decision. The only thing he could do now was help as much as he could.

"As far as I know, Cloud doesn't have any solid alliances. They've never been able to hold any for long." At Fumio's surprised look Naruto smirked, "What? Didn't think that I ever read all that crap that you gave to me?" Fumio only sputtered before he huffed and looked away, his actions speaking plainly of his guilt.

With Cloud having no real possible alliances, they were being really bold. But now wasn't the time to figure out motives. He had to act now.

"Do as I've said. Select a variety of ninja who have long-ranged, mass destructive jutsus along with several who use close combat jutsus as the second wave. Inform the council of an immediate meeting. I'm going to inform those at Sound about this new development," he ordered. Fumio bowed curtly and 

moved left the office. These words meant that the council would only be meeting with a shadow clone. Once outside the man prayed that this wouldn't be a big mistake. A second thought though made him reconsider.

Naruto was an idiot most of the times but every now and then he showed his potential; just like now. He could only support his Hokage like any true inhabitant of this village. He hurried to do as he was bid.

Naruto stayed in the office for a moment longer. With this move from Cloud and the fact that he had just been wrapping up with Sound made his head hurt. But his resolve had never been clearer. No one was going to mess with Konoha. If they thought that he was too young to protect his village then he'd show them.

Sound could wait, without Orochimaru they weren't anything more than a ragtag group of misled ninja. They would be put on trial or else simply executed. He'd rather not have the latter but there wasn't any time for trials at the moment. He'd deal with them later.

* * *

"Good, everyone's here that is here at the moment," the Hokage announce before he stood up and prepared himself for the impact of his words.

"Earlier today I received word from one of our squadron's patrolling the northern part of the country that two other squadrons were ambushed. It was reported that the ones that ambushed our sentries were none other than Cloud nins," he imparted and took a small pause to let that information sink in briefly. He continued though before anyone could speak up or think too much.

"The remaining squad reported that those nin were merely two of the several scouting troops that Cloud had sent out. Following those scouts is a large group. They're heading straight for Konoha."

At that statement the room erupted in a multitude of voices. Chaos ensued for a moment before Naruto held his hand up for silence. Like a charm it drew the council's attention and the room quieted for their Hokage to speak.

"For a group that large there's no questions as to their purpose. Once they cross the border onto Fire Country land I'll have our shinobi attack." He continued to relay his plan of action disregarding some of the disapproval in some of the council members' faces.

When he finished one man brought up the issue of faulty intelligence; how could he know for sure that Cloud was heading for them?

For once Naruto did not appear to be the slow one. He reiterated the actions of Cloud for the past months, dating back to before the Chuunin Exams; also the fact that aside from Konoha, there were no other villages in their general direction. And even if there were, it was in their duty to lend a hand.

Several more issues were brought up which Naruto answered as well as Fumio. Before long, he started gaining ground with the council, especially those who had fought or known someone who did in the last war with Rock.

Fumio thought to himself that maybe the council wouldn't be disbanded after all. There was hope for Konoha yet for reform. Naruto truly was amazing.

* * *

While the shadow clone was talking the real Naruto was already making plans with Kakashi and Shikamaru. He was trying to avoid Sasuke so he had used the seal which luckily was still with Kakashi. To his immense luck, Sasuke wasn't there but Shikamaru was.

He waited now for the two men to finish their thoughts and tell him anything that they thought might impair them.

"This just might work," Shikamaru stated after a long pause. Inwardly Naruto exhaled but the Nara continued, "We're just going to incapacitate them right? Then the second wave should deal with the rest."

"With the reported size we should be able to pull this off. There wasn't much opposition here," Kakashi added in his words meaning that they were all fine for the most part.

"Good. It's settled then. Shikamaru you'll take charge of the ambush. Factor me in there somewhere will you? I gotta go see Sasuke." He didn't give them a chance to say anything to that as he stood up and ignored the look he got from Shikamaru.

Naruto steeled his resolve to face his most likely furious boyfriend.

He found the Uchiha brooding at a clearing not too far away from the others. Tentatively the blond approached the other but even from a distance he could see the emotions radiating off of him. No doubt he had known all along that Naruto had come back and wasn't bothering to hide anything.

He approached cautiously only to be grabbed and yanked away to another location.

To say that Sasuke was angry was an understatement. Naruto should know; he was the one on the receiving end of the trademark glare that was so cold it burned. His boy friend was making his displeasure known. It had been this way since Sasuke had literally dragged him out of the clearing while Naruto attempted to apologize.

They had come to a stop by a scraggly creek but as angry as the man was, he wasn't talking. What was worse was that every time Naruto tried to get closer to hug the silently seething man, said man would take another step back.

It hurt. He wasn't chasing his back but he still hadn't caught up to him. The stupid man kept backing away!

"Sasuke!" Naruto whined, "I told you, I had to come. I couldn't let you guys go alone. What if something happened to you? How could I help if I was back in Konoha?" He took another step toward the unresponsive Uchiha.

"What if something happened to _you_?" Sasuke finally snapped, "Idiot! That was the whole point of you staying there." His glare didn't lesson at all, but Naruto had ceased to see it when he heard Sasuke say those words. Inwardly the blond was delighted to hear that Sasuke cared about him; he was actually worried about him!

With his plan of hugging the other man still in mind, he took tiny, discrete steps toward Sasuke while he distracted the man with his face and voice.

"Aww, you were worried about me?" he cooed sweetly as his face lit up. Contrary to what he was supposed to do the raven haired man didn't drop his glare. It looked like he just got angrier.

"Of course I worry! You're always running around; who knows what the hell's gonna happen to you," he snapped. Naruto stopped moving forward; surprise adorned his face as he realized Sasuke didn't know that he was only teasing him. The mood had gotten quite somber and the need to apologize made the blond dash forward. He wrapped his arms around the other. Sasuke didn't return the hug.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, "I know, but it sucks you know? This is the only part about being Hokage that I hate. I can't stand being in Konoha when I'm the one sending you out to what could be the last day of your life." He pulled back so that he could look Sasuke in the eyes.

"And if all my precious people aren't in Konoha…if you're not in Konoha, what's the point of me being there?" he asked softly. He leaned forward and rested his head on Sasuke's chest, tucking his head underneath the taller one's chin. Sasuke let out a small sigh and he finally lifted his arms and encircled them around his blond tightly.

Of course it was impossible for Naruto to stay where he was suppose to if it meant that he or anyone would be in danger. He had proved that already by continuing to chase after him even after all those years. It just meant that he'd have to work harder to make sure that nothing happened to his blond. Sasuke hated it and loved it. He'd never say that to him though.

He pulled back and mentioned that they should get back to the others. It had taken Naruto about ten minutes to find Sasuke and it turned out that he had already known what was going on. They were setting out immediately. Scouts had already informed Naruto that Cloud would be crossing the border into Fire Country soon. They would have to intercept them shortly after that.

* * *

A/N:

War is a nasty, complicated business and if I were to go into all the details involving war…this story would never end and it would take away from their life which I don't want to do. So hence I'm taking the easy way out and just doing it this way.

Hmm, no other notes on this except that this is coming to a close, depending on how long some of my next chapters are. The big moment is coming! Don't expect anything too flashy, remember that this is supposed to be realistic (real life troubles with ninja accessories).

Anyway, thanks for reading!


	21. Chapter 21

As It Is Now

Chapter 20

This is a _**Mature**_ chapter. There is _**sex**_ in this chapter if you don't know what _**Mature**_ means in this case. If you want to skip it, I've marked the beginning and end. You don't miss much (except for some narusasu moment). It's not necessary to the plot of the story but it's a good addition nonetheless.

Oh, and there's a lot of jumping around, hope it's not too confusing. Anyway, read on!

* * *

The battle was brief but intense. After the initial shock of the ambush had worn off Cloud nins had pushed hard to get through even at the cost of their lives it seemed. The ones that had passed them would had been met by the others. Tired and fewer, they had been bound to lose.

Even so, Naruto performed the Hirashin to make sure. By the time everything had settled down and Sakura and other medics were taking care of the wounded while some took care of the dead to bring them back to Konoha, the blond Hokage was exhausted.

Jumping back and forth everywhere in the northern part of the country was tiring even for someone of his immeasurable stamina. After speaking to Shikamaru about the losses and where to proceed, he made his way wearily back to Konoha.

Now that the threat had been handled at the lost of a dozen shinobi, he had to report to the council and decide with them what to do about the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

It had taken him over a day to get back home simply because he was tired. All along the way he tried to contemplate what he should do but his mind stubbornly stayed blank while his body ached. He hadn't been able to see much of Sasuke in the fight but he knew the other man could take care of himself.

He had only stayed long enough to see with his eyes that Sasuke was able to move around without any major injuries before he began making his way to Konoha. As much as he wanted to just lie down next to the pale man, he knew he couldn't do that.

There were decisions to be made and the lives of people to handle before he could spend any alone time with his boy friend. It would make their reunion that much sweeter.

At least that was what he was trying to convince himself; it was the only way he was keeping forward instead of turning back around. The gates loomed up ahead but inside Naruto felt no peace.

* * *

"So it's decided then," Homura spoke slowly as he stared at the Hokage. With a grim nod, Naruto affirmed the decision. The atmosphere in the room was almost stifling. The decision had not come easily. Going through with the choice would be even harder but he'd make sure that it happened.

"Now," Naruto spoke up after a few moments of silence, "What do you all suggest for the situation with Cloud?" He had an idea of what he wanted but he needed to know what they thought first. They were on a precarious edge; a brink that they would either have to jump or back down.

Two days had passed since the battle in the north and the Raikage had sent a messenger relaying his ignorance of the attack and the civil turmoil in his village. The message was now being discussed between the council and Naruto.

The day wore on and soon night fell. They took a half hour break for nourishment but soon they were back inside the chamber and debating on the course of response to the message. It wasn't until almost noon the next day that they finally came to a decision.

* * *

Fumio opened the door to the Hokage's office to find Naruto sitting in his chair mulling over some documents. Whether or not the blond was actually reading the papers or thinking about something else didn't matter; the older man marched up to the desk and leaned over it.

"Hokage-sama!" he stared right into those blue eyes sternly, "What are you doing here?" Naruto gave him a blank stare then responded, "It's my job to be here." Fumio glanced at the darkened skin under the blonde's eyes and glared reproachfully.

"You need to rest," he reprimanded, then added, "If you want to maintain your position as Hokage that is."

Naruto scowled at the older man, "You can't kick me out just because I'm not doing what you say, Fumio." The thought was absurd! The old man had no reason to back up that ludacris statement! It took a few blinks before Naruto realized that he didn't have any authority to back up his threat and that the old man was merely messing with his head. Fumio smirked and leaned back away from the desk.

"I'm giving you five minutes to leave the office and go home," he warned before he turned around and walked out of the office. Naruto immediately thought that he was going to grab Sakura to forcefully drag him out and tie him to his bed.

The thought was slightly appealing at the moment, only the part where he saw Sakura though; he hadn't seen Sakura since the battle. Actually, he hadn't seen anybody aside from the council members since he had gotten back. The only reason why Sasuke hadn't been in that council room was because he had just gotten back with the others that morning.

Maybe he'd go find his boyfriend and see if he couldn't snuggle with him. The thought of Sasuke made him smile. His sluggish brain began sifting through memories again and before he knew it the door was thrown open and in marched the last person he had expected.

* * *

Naruto woke up to the sound of his alarm. He ignored it for a moment before it turned off by itself. Instantly the annoying sound went away and his hazy mind started to drift back to darkness. A casual thought of how the alarm could turn itself off passed through his mind before something registered in his head that his alarm didn't turn off unless the button was switched.

Not to mention his alarm was at the foot of his bed. His eyes opened blearily and he looked around, not really thinking about a possible threat.

"Go back to sleep, Naruto," came a soft voice from the side of his bed. His eyes immediately darted to the dark figure; he knew it was Sasuke even before he saw him. He struggled to turn toward the dark shape, fighting the cocoon that his blanket had become. Sasuke had never stayed the night before, what was he doing here?

"Wha… Sasuke," he croaked out in slight confusion. What time was it anyway? He squinted at the dark figure and when no reply came, he huffed out, "Well?"

"What?" came the short reply. Even half asleep to Naruto the reply was still intelligent. Damn you. He noticed the arched brow and realized he had said that out loud.

"I asked what time is it," he grumpily spoke even as he sat up.

"No you didn't," came the amused response. He couldn't help picking on the blond. With his hair mussed up from sleep and the way his voice was still husky from lack of use during the night, Sasuke had a hard time keeping his hands to himself.

Naruto growled, annoyed at Sasuke so he just turned his head and peered at his alarm clock.

"Crap! It's already five! I'm gonna be late!" he scrambled up and almost fell out of his bed in his haste. All the while he muttered about forgetting to set his alarm properly before going to bed. Stupid Sasuke, he blamed it on the other man for distracting him. Wait, he didn't remember going to bed. His thought was cut off though when he stood up.

Before he could get too far from his bed though, he briefly registered that there were arms around his abdomen, Sasuke's arms actually. Why they'd belong to anybody else was another thought that flickered briefly before said arms tightened and he was suddenly being lifted off the floor.

The surprise yelp was unavoidable as his boyfriend tossed him back onto the bed before pouncing on top of him.

"Sasuke! What are you doing?" he asked frantically as he tried to push the pale man off of him. Sasuke responded by nuzzling the blond man before kissing him.

"It's too early for you to get up. Plus," he spoke low, his voice taking on a husky timbre that made Naruto want to do so many things to him. His mind was quickly clearing up.

"I missed you." Well, if he put it like that, how could Naruto say no?

"I missed you too, Sasuke," he said quietly back as he stared into those dark eyes that just seemed to suck his heart and soul out. Yeah, there wasn't any doubt now that Sasuke had both of those. He'd do anything for him. He leaned up and kissed at those firm lips. The stress of the last week melted away totally forgotten as he let all that was Sasuke fill his senses.

Placing soft pressure on those lips, he opened his own mouth to lick at them. Sasuke willingly obliged and opened his own mouth as both tongues swirled around each other. Naruto pulled back briefly to look at the man above him but Sasuke leaned forward and took his mouth once more unwilling to part.

Their hands roamed; firm caresses that were more of a way of just feeling and memorizing than anything else. They had never gone beyond making out and grinding. He didn't care though as his skin heated and the feelings that were coursing through him started to drive him crazy. He wasn't sure when it turned into a heated, passionate struggle. Maybe it was when Sasuke pulled away from his mouth to attack his neck.

Maybe it was the moan that came out of his mouth when the other's tongue flicked over that spot on his neck just the way he liked it. Or maybe it was the way he had flipped Sasuke over and performed the same ministrations on Sasuke that he had done to him.

* * *

**_(Sex, don't look, don't read…unless you want to…)_**

Whatever the reason, they were both lost as clothing was shed impatiently. They couldn't get enough of each other. Sweat slicked their bodies and their harsh panting coupled with moans filled the room. Naruto didn't even pull back to frantically search the bedside table for something.

His hand came up empty after knocking over the lamp and several other items. He cursed; he had Sasuke writhing under him practically and he couldn't even find a damn thing of anything! He pulled back and Sasuke growled. That idiot wasn't going to stop now.

That murderous thought was ripped away when Naruto's warm hand wrapped around him. He arched back and didn't even bother to deny the loud groan that came from him.

That rough, calloused hand was stroking him; all he knew was Naruto, he didn't give a shit about anything else. He moaned the blonde's name and Naruto responded by quickening his pace. Black eyes looked at him before he bent forward. He watched as those eyes widened as his mouth engulfed him.

The heat and suction nearly sent Sasuke over the edge. His hands tightened on the sheets and he couldn't help but thrust his hips upward into that addicting heat.

Naruto tightened his one-handed grip on hips to keep him from thrusting. His other hand continued squeezing and stroking even as he kept sucking. Sasuke's moans and panting were driving him crazy. As much as he wanted to just ram himself into the pale man, there would no doubt be hell to pay.

Instead he pulled away just long enough to coat his fingers with saliva; he chanced a look at those dark eyes to see his reaction to what he was about to do. There was nothing more than irritation in them at him for having stopped. Naruto grinned; Sasuke was so demanding!

He lifted those tightly muscled legs up and pushed them against the raven's stomach. He thought about simply having him come first but decided he could do better than that. As his mouth returned to what it had started, he gently inserted a finger into that tight, puckered opening. Sasuke moaned and squirmed at the same time. It probably felt weird but combined with pleasure he wasn't sure what to do about it.

Naruto took his time; he wiggled his digit around and pretty much felt him up. An irritated, raspy comment about him hurrying the fuck up made him push another finger in. He had stopped sucking but his other hand was still stroking him. He watched the pale man before him closely; he didn't want to miss any of the emotions displayed openly for him to see.

Scissoring his fingers, he grinned when Sasuke let out a grunt which morphed into a groan when he curled his fingers and stroked at his prostate. He thought briefly about a third finger but impatient, Sasuke heaved up and wrenched him forward for a brutal kiss.

When they came up for air, Sasuke snapped out, "Quit thinking so much and do it already, idiot."

"Fine then," he growled out and lifted a leg over his shoulder. Leaning on his arms he positioned himself before he slowly pushed himself in. Sasuke's grip on his shoulder turned brutal as he felt pain flare in his lower region.

After what felt like an agonizing amount of time, Naruto was finally deeply seated inside of him. The pale man was breathing hard and trying not to move. Slightly concerned that he wasn't ready after all, Naruto quietly asked, "Are you alright?"

"Just move," Sasuke gritted out. It shouldn't be this bad…or at least it should get better, he tried to tell himself over the burn in his ass. Hesitant and cautious Naruto began to pull out; three quarters of the way out, he pushed back in. He repeated this several times before he starting stroking Sasuke's semi-limp flesh again.

He leaned forward, giving him a kiss and told him to just relax and feel. There was an ungrateful snort followed by a sarcastic remark that he was feeling. Naruto on the other hand was feeling great and it was hard not to just keep with what he was doing. There was some blood, he could smell it, but he figured it would be best if he didn't tell the other.

"You're the one who told me to hurry the fuck up," he pointed out, starting to get annoyed that Sasuke himself was annoyed. Black eyes glared at him; he was about to open his mouth to tell the blond to get off of him when Naruto angled his thrust slightly and his words came out in a sharp gasp.

He grinned; that shut him up quick. His hand was working the other while he continued to thrust into that sweet spot. He felt those tight, hot walls squeezing in around him but he gritted his teeth, determined to make Sasuke come first. It wasn't too long before Sasuke tensed, his muscles bunching up; he couldn't hold back the guttural moan.

His walls tightened reflexively and Naruto felt himself losing to that white hot nirvana.

* * *

**_(No more sex…all done)_**

"Get off of me," Sasuke muttered. Naruto groaned as he automatically leaned back to get off the other. He winced when he tried to roll off only to discover a very unpleasant situation. They both cringed as he finally pulled away.

"Idiot," the Uchiha muttered again. They had a lot to learn about each other. The mutual attraction was there, just not the skill or knowledge. Naruto looked at the clock to see that it was almost six. He was supposed to be in his office by six, or at least that's when Fumio came in. Today the old man could be there without him for once Naruto decided.

"I'm going to shower," Sasuke stated as he moved to get out of bed. He stopped though as soon as he tried to sit up; to put it simply, his ass hurt like a bitch. He managed a half stand before he gritted his teeth and stood up straight. Standing still didn't help either and there was no way in hell he was going to limp in front of Naruto. Said blond was wondering why he had stopped. When realization dawned on him though, that's when the snickering started.

"Shut up," he growled at the hysterical blond at which the snickering became full out laughter. He lunged at the fox vessel but with his 'handicap' he missed the agile blond by inches. The chase lasted a couple dashes around the room before Sasuke came to a stop and simply glared at the other.

During the time of their chase he could have gone to the bathroom already and be in the shower, not standing here seething and… he looked down as he felt something drip down his leg. Bleeding.

He was bleeding.

Naruto's eyes followed his lover's and his eyes widened with guilt. Immediately he went over to the other and hugged him, consequences be damned.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," he apologized pathetically. His guilty eyes tilted up at the other and Sasuke looked away.

"It's fine, it's common actually," he tried to alleviate the other's feelings as he did his best to ignore that fact that his ass hurt and that he was bleeding and embarrassed.

"Okay," he mumbled before giving him a chaste kiss, "Go take your shower, I'll make you something to eat." Sasuke only glared at him before Naruto sighed and left the room. As soon as he was out of the room though, more laughter could be heard.

He wanted to strangle the idiot.

Instead he chose to withhold his desire and limped to the bathroom instead.

* * *

**A/N**:

And that was all I could type up. Can you believe this chapter only took me an hour to type but a million years to actually get to? Yeah, I know, slow updates but what can you do when school's started? Hope you like it. Any errors are mostly expected; I usually take a few days to look this over and proof it first before I post, but here ya go!


End file.
